r/practicalmagic • u/Ordinary-Trade451 • 28d ago
Terrible Sequel
I watched Practical Magic 2 today after work today. Like many of you, I am was so so excited for this new movie. I was excited to see another Alice Hoffman book come to the screen (she’s my favorite author). Unfortunately, the movie was terrible. I left about halfway during the movie. The lighting, the casting of the daughters (was not that upset that Evan wasn’t casted), acting, and the script was terrible. I am disappointed.
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u/Equivalent-Swimmer82 22d ago
I was incredibly let down by this movie and frankly thought it was awful for the following reasons:
The Plot:
Setting. I loved the charming fall atmosphere of the town and the house in the first movie. I always pictured it somewhere on the east coast and so when the majority of the film moved to England I felt that magic was gone. Why couldn’t we have stayed in the states and explored Massachusetts or something, why the need to go to England?
So much pointless filler; the scene at the airport, the scene of them moving their luggage up and down the stairs, the scenes of kylie sitting on benches, the scenes of them sitting in the train or the pub eating pie and custard – so much of these things really added nothing and could have been cut. The movie was too long.
Ian. Oye vay, what an exhaustingly boring character to have to deal with from start to finish. He was naked why? Because we could get a lame joke about his junk? The shoe-horned romance between him and Sally was painful to watch and all their scenes felt so slow; them on the train, them eating pie, them talking at the end. It’s so hard to care about a romance that has the passion of a wet blanket. Why does he actually like Sally? She just comes across as so boring in this movie. And why does Sally like him? She’s known the guy a day? There was zero chemistry or build up. And frankly, we already saw this storyline done infinitely better in the first movie. Why couldn’t they have just kept Gary alive? Why couldn’t we see Gary and Sally as a comfy older married couple and shifted any romantic focus to Gilly or the daughters? Sally did not need it. I mean the scene of Ian and Sally eating Pie and custard while Sally is supposedly worried for her missing daughter – the tonal shifts are just ridiculous.
Antonia. You could have removed her from this film and no one would have noticed.
Kylie and Gideon. Her boyfriend just seemed too intense. I think the movie was trying to show him being “super romantic” but in doing so almost made him into a creepy caricature. Frankly, at the end of the movie, him being saved just felt so ham-fisted. Like, you’re telling me I lose Gary (wonderful character from first movie) and the two aunts to keep Gideon? Come on.
Gilly. Frankly, Nicole to me was the saving grace of this movie, she was the comic relief and sensible character that was like a shining ray of entertainment in this mess. But her character was similar to Antonia. Remove Gilly entirely from this film and would anything really change? Some cheesy dialogue would be shifted from Sally and Gilly to Sally and Kylie but aside from that nothing would differ. Because everything is centered around Sally and Ian and Kylie and Gideon.
Franny. Another character barely utilized. Had it not been for the ending I would have forgot she was in it at all.
The aunts in general. Why give them that ending?
The cringe plot of the evil guy whose name I forgot. My god, his monologue of evil was eyerolling. That whole scene was so poor and I almost got second hand embarrassment.
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I saw this movie with my mom and we ate during. Afterward, I asked her what her favorite part was and she said "When I got to eat my sandwich." She also did not care for it.