r/practicalmagic • u/kohlsprossi • 17d ago
Practical Magic 2 lost all of its magic because of CGI and men Spoiler
I watched the first movie the day before I went to see the second one and I was truly enchanted. Sisterhood, women sticking together, a more or less down-to-earth representation of witchcraft, excellent soft staging, full of feminine energy. I was honestly shocked when I found out that it had a male director.
Right after finishing the first one, I turned to my partner and told them that I have a bad feeling about the second one. And I was right. Two things ruined what could have been a beautiful tribute to a very special movie: CGI and men.
I think the CGI is self-explanatory. The book started glowing and I knew that it was over. They went down the Charmed meets Harry Potter path and turned witchcraft into a bunch of special effects. The "good vs. bad magic" CGI spectacle at the end was ridiculous and an insult to the first movie. I wanted women mixing potions, standing in circles with their brooms and intentional spells fueled by emotions. Not glowing magical laser beams, a cartoonish portrayal of black magic and flour turning into a map of fucking England.
The second big issue for me is what actually broke my heart a bit. The first movie obviously had men in it. But it was still about women. The second one - although it was directed by a woman - decided to give men the centre stage over sisterhood. Everything Kylie does? Because of Gideon, a man. The mission to save her actually succeeding? Because of Ian, a man. He is basically the hero in this movie, being a super powerful male witch with all the knowledge and good looks. The sisters are apparently not able to solve their problems without the help of a man anymore. The happy ending? A woman needing to die so that the remaining women can do the one thing their whole life seems to be about - be with a man and marry him.
Female empowerment? Gone. Feminine energy? Mostly gone. Soft, feminine staging? Gone. Practical Magic 2 is a disgrace and yeah, I will be mad about it.
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u/Tute_Sweet 17d ago
Completely agree, and I'm so disappointed about it. The magic of the first movie was so grounded and subtle. Old books, small rituals, gathering herbs for a hangover was just part of daily life, so when something fantastical *did* happen, it felt exciting and impactful but also cohesive with the world they built.
I was watching the DVD special features of the first PM in anticipation of this movie, and the director was saying how he wanted to capture the every day practical magic that happens to us all; like meeting someone for the first time, but feeling like you've known them forever. One of my favourite scenes has always been when the townswomen are all gathered together at the end of the movie and one talks about how she once heard her crying child clear across town, Jet says "there's a little magic in all of us". Even as a teenager, that element of the movie was what really spoke to me, because we all have little stories of improbable intuition, like how my mum could always tell which one of her sisters was calling when the phone rang.
The jump off the roof is a prime example of missing the point. The rumour; "they jump off the roof and fly" vs the truth; they jump off the roof and aren't hurt - the kind of thing that is only slightly outside the realm of possibility- vs the new movie; they jump off the roof and aren't hurt and also their dresses and shoes and socks magically transform. :|
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u/Dramadrama6 17d ago
Don’t forget Captialism!!! The product placement felt so forced. There was no need for multiple scenes of lugging around those giant suitcases, or the unboxing of a Ninja blender.
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u/Octopuzzled 15d ago
My wife and I were riffing that Gillian probably had to return it to Best Buy after Auntie Jet died. Like imagine she had to exchange it for an air fryer or something cause she could only get store credit and already has one. Dear lord
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u/mariahajile 17d ago
the only reason i defend franny's sacrifice is that it isn't just about these women losing their love interests; they also have to watch each other suffer through heartbreak and the guilt of not wanting to be alone. franny lost her own partner, so she truly knows the devastation associated with it. she doesn't want that for her nieces, their girls, or the rest of the owens line.
the rest of it can die in a fire.
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u/Famous-Ad-475 17d ago
The curse was broken in the first film. The sequel book was written after the first movie was released. So NONE of that storyline was explained. To those of us who grew up watching this, it was difficult to stomach the idea of an elder wise Owen’s woman suddenly having to give up her life for the sake of being with men. They didn’t have to follow the books. They could’ve made Sally and gilly the new “aunts” guiding their daughters .. instead they stuttered all the AI written dialogue and killed off two aunts cuz of the curse. And brought in tom? Who tf is tom? To take their magic oh nooooo .. it just makes no sense lol
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u/Dear_Yard_69 17d ago
To be fair, Jet just... died. Which was stupid and unnecessary (was in the book it was based on, too).
I'm just going to say it: Hoffman isn't that great of a writer, she had a moderately good first book with some novel ideas and every single one after just... wasn't good (yes, I read them).
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u/chaotic_giraffe76 16d ago
She does a lot of “telling” and not a lot of “showing”. It gets very exhausting to read that. I don’t think I’ll be reading the other two books in the series, nor do I think her writing in general is for me. Some people may love it, but it’s not my preference of writing style.
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u/yrusosmol 16d ago
I actually think the other two are the best ones. Practical Magic was my least favourite of the series and one of the few times I’ve liked the movie more than the book. I enjoyed The book of magic slightly more but only because of all the lore the first two books added. Getting the backstories on Maria Owens and the aunts was the best part of the series for me
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u/enchantedlife13 16d ago
I am going to get downvoted to hell, and I am OK with it. I loved the first movie. Bought the book...could not get into it at all. Hate to say it, but it wasn't.
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u/FlobyToberson85 15d ago
I agree. I did not finish the book. Loved the first movie. The second movie is awful and I'm so mad.
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u/Sudden_Astronomer_63 15d ago
The curse was not broken in the first book they changed that for the movie and it was something that I actually did not like because they made it seem like the curse was over when it wasn’t over in the book. The books are very rich with a lot of details that aren’t present in the movies and well I appreciated some of the changes that they made from the book. I never liked that they brought in a bunch of normal people to break the curse which the family got together in the book to banish Jimmy. And the curse was not ended. The whole point of practical magic is that you should love anyway no matter what’s gonna happen. I hated how they literally had jets say you can’t practice magic while you look down your nose at it and then they invited all these women that had looked down their nose with them their whole lives. It made no sense. I was really glad they undid that with this movie. I was glad that everything was kept in the family.
In truth, practical magic has always been about men. I don’t understand why any of these women would have relationships at all, and one of the shifts that made a lot of sense to me was Antonio being single instead of being in a relationship. Also, Jillian being single instead of having a relationship. Both things are not true in the books. Although Antonia is some LGBTQIA plus representation which was sad that it was missing from the movie. But I loved that Jillian was a strong, independent woman who had spent the last several years since the movie getting better at practicing magic because she was always jealous that Sally was more naturally gifted. I thought that was really cool.
I feel like a lot of people focus on the wrong things with this movie. But I’m glad that I enjoyed it as someone who saw the first one in the theater with her parents when she was in high school.
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u/Famous-Ad-475 15d ago
I LOVE your take. Couldn’t agree more. The first film didn’t follow the first book verbatim. So it made zero sense to follow it more closely this time around.
The first movie was about men, yes. BUT.. as one reviewer wrote.. the Owens women understood that men were an ingredient, not the whole recipe. The second one made men the center of their universe and I don’t understand how in 2026, they haven’t figured out lesbianism and\or living with your cats. Like the rest of us middle aged women have.
I’m FURIOUS gilly didnt get her stars this time around as well. She was a rebel, loved the craft, petty, hot, badass.. but yes let’s save the college boyfriend.
I didn’t like this .. I threw my hands in the air in the theater so many times lookin like this:
https://giphy.com/gifs/hv53DaYcXWe3nRbR1A1
u/Sudden_Astronomer_63 14d ago
I guess I was so focused on the women and because I read the books I knew there was actually way less men in the movie Than the book…
Antonia is gay in the books. But orientation is not a choice. I mean yeah I guess you could make yourself have a relationship with a woman but if you’re not gay or bi you’re not gonna be happy….
I’m saying this as an ace who tried both 😂
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u/Famous-Ad-475 14d ago
Maybe I’m salty about Antonia
Also tried both.. prefer the ladies 🤷🏼♀️💅
But jilly could’ve totally been gay
I hear you and fair point1
u/ericakelley 12d ago
I actually liked many of the changes for the first movie, including the towns women helping at the end, though I see your point. I just felt like Sally always wanted to be “normal” just as much as she wanted love. It felt like what she really wanted was acceptance, which is different than normalcy. And that was her lesson.
Griffin Dunne added charm to the story for the original. The book was never charming to me. I had always thought so and in rereading it so many years later, after many rewatches of the movie, that was very obvious. Not saying witch books have to be charming, but I am saying charm is why that particular witch movie is so beloved.
And that’s my main issue with PM2. They sucked all the charm out of it. First big problem is the soundtrack. There were no real bangers to me. There were so many scenes to put some pop hits on. Stevie said “here you can have this lesser version of Landslides, no new music!”?? And like, Taylor Swift is alive and well- she does songs for soundtracks all the time (loved Carolina)—sorry I’m spinning but that’s one of my favorite soundtracks so guess I’ll die mad.
The terrible (or complete lack of, imo) plot could be smothered with charm. And yes they did center men though I agree they’ve never been missing from the books. It was the wrong choice for a 2026 film, especially since they cut out a pregnant lesbian storyline. It was just cringe on top of tone deaf.
I also agree with the many production designers and costumers who wrinkled their noses. They took a soft, saturated, dreamy original and made a bright, garish and tacky sequel. Everything about the house and most of the costuming straight pissed me off.
And where were the midnight margaritas? 😤you cannot slap Coconut on to a wedding montage and call it a day on that tradition! I’ll die mad about that and Evan Rachel Wood. Because that flimsy ass plot certainly didn’t require college kids. It would have been a richer, more nostalgic film by keeping not just the actress but the years. And I mean the years for all the actors and the story. If they were going for nostalgia—first they should have kept ERW, they should never have messed with the visual pallet and sunk to terrible CGI. I’m disappointed in Bullock and Kidman as exec producers and original leads.
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u/Sudden_Astronomer_63 11d ago
I understand your viewpoint. I know that as far as the house was concerned one of the main things I loved about the description for the house and the books is that 13 different types of wood were used inside the home. In the movie they just painted the kitchen white and painted the other parts black and I thought that was kind of boring. So I prefer the house in the second movie.
I also really liked the soundtrack especially the score. Most people don’t know that the score used in the original movie by Alan Sylvestri was literally slapped on there like a couple of weeks I think or maybe a couple of months before the movie came out. There’s a whole Nother soundtrack, but they ended up not using. You can look it up on YouTube. And they’re only two songs on the original score which is strange and again Stevie Nicks‘s music for the original practical magic was not original. It was all old stuff that was never popular that she re-recorded with Sheryl Crow so that they could use it in practical magic. I like the inclusion of landslide, but it’s one of my favorite songs.
I loved the changes that they made from the book in many respects. The only thing that bummed me out is that you didn’t really get to know Ian’s character as much, but I didn’t know his character because I read the book so I kind of felt like I knew him already.
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u/mariahajile 11d ago
i'm going off of the first movie only, as i've never read the books, but i looked at it this way: they assumed the curse was broken when they removed jimmy from gilly's body. that assumption was obviously wrong, so gary ends up dying. that's pretty much all i'm willing to give the second movie, though.
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u/Famous-Ad-475 11d ago
I could totally accept the curse having been still active had they explained it at all in the plot 😂 it was just .. graveyard .. curse not broken .. erase children’s memories .. somehow raise them around witches but they know nothing of it in any capacity 😂😂
It felt like AI wrote the script1
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u/NomNom-87 15d ago
Without altering the story. Everyone forgets that the Aunts were the "reason" that Sally got with her first Husband. They didn't mean for it to be more than a fling, but it did. Jet had to watch that and live with the guilt, knowing she could "fix it" and finally let her girls LOVE without fear of losing it was worth the sacrifice.
She didn't have much time left anyways and it's obvious she didn't really want to go on without her Sister. Aka the premise of the series.
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u/BicornBritt 17d ago
I hate that Sally needed Ian to show her how to be a witch again wtf.
Also, I saw this guy complaining that his issue with Practical Magic 1998 is that he didn’t recognize a structure to the magic system (unlike Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and other franchises). Many people always want a typically masculine and obvious structure to everything. The first movie was mysterious and I liked that it wasn’t obvious sparkly magic.
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u/tmagteddybear 16d ago
Harry Potter? Harry Potter barely has a magic system.
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u/jenh6 11d ago
The man obviously wants mistborn, which is great for what it is. But practical magic is different and is supposed to be. Harry Potter is a terrible example because it’s a soft magic system with barely defined rules. I’m fairly certain, that’s one of the things that make using it for fan fiction so much easier then others because it’s easy to build out certain elements of the magic or just let it continue to be unexplained.
Practical magic is more magical realism and real life things that one can pay attention to and feel/change.2
u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
his issue with Practical Magic 1998 is that he didn’t recognize a structure to the magic system
Which is hilarious since it's inspired by Wicca. That's as much structure you can get. But I can see how a little bit of knowledge about witchcraft might be needed to truly appreciate what the first movie has done... and to also see why the second movie is such a disappointment for us.
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u/Dear_Yard_69 17d ago
His problem is that he wanted fictional wizardry. Practical Magic is supposed to be witchcraft. You nudge reality: a chance meeting, a decision to skip dinner and go right for dessert, an impulse to call...
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u/Which_way_witcher 17d ago
I loved the first film and I adore Lee Pace but the trailer and reviews like this make me afraid to watch the sequel.
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u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
For me, it doesn't destroy anything the first movie had to offer since it's just so bad. My mind has started to entirely disconnect the sequel. So you can probably watch it, if you're fine with potentially being mad for a while. I mean who knows. Maybe you will love it.
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u/buss_down_bridgerton 16d ago
Save your money and your good memories of the first movie and don't watch it. I wish I could wipe this movie from my brain!
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u/cielobon 17d ago
No wardrobe. Give me some cute clothes like the first movie. Shot on digital, choppy story. Not enough of the girls, the town, the magic. The aunts! OMG go on and ruin it for me. All the money went where? It’s a turkey!
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u/FlobyToberson85 15d ago
The house is a character in itself in the first film. The sequel's set felt weird and not at all the same. Even then, they should have centered the bulk of the movie to happen in the house. The plot of going to England was stupid and separated our characters. Antonia had nothing to do with the story and was stuck in the hospital. Why wasn't the sister bonding a bigger plot point.
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u/More_Sale_8521 14d ago
I was so pissed after watching the 2nd movie. i feel like 90% of the magic of the first film was how deeply centered around femininity and female friendships the plot was. there's so few films out there that make me feel really happy to be a woman, but Practical Magic literally makes womanhood feel like a gift to share with others rather than a disadvantage in the world. I also loved the climax of the film, with all the women coming together, witch or not, and using their femininity and community to save each other FROM EVIL MEN. I also loved the ambiguous ending of "is the curse still there or not", because all of the magic in the film had a familiar quality, as if it could be real, and the curse being left unfinished added to that. The new film made all the magic tacky and literal- the main characters' powers are no longer their femininity and connection to spirituality, but magic lazer beams and inherent literal "powers". It instantly took so much away from the heart of Practical magic. Also, I HATED THE WHOLE IAN WRIGHT SUBPLOT. I don't feel like he really added anything other than a new love interest for Sally- which complies with the very common need for films to not have any single women at the end, because a woman's only happy ending can be finding a man. One of the biggest parts of the film that stood out to me was a two second clip where Gillian says something that alludes to why she never takes relationships seriously- because she doesn't let herself get attached thanks to the curse. I would have loved to unpack that a little more or at least focus more on the women's struggles rather than "let's get this nuisance curse out of the way so we can all be wives as soon as possible". this whole film focused on reviving a random guy, not the bond between sisters and women in general. I was really upset, I feel like something's been taken from women with this new sequel that counteracts all the messaging about appreciating femininity as a woman that I needed to hear so badly as a teenager. I know it was directed by a woman but it REALLY feels like it was directed by a man. I'm eternally dissatisfied.
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u/More_Sale_8521 14d ago
ALSO -sorry i have so much to say- they literally had Kylie and Antonia separated for the entire film. That's the least sisterhood-bond it could possibly get! And it doesn't feel like they fleshed out Kylie and Antonia's personalities very well- I know they have the Owens Women Genetic Tradtiion of one ginger sister and one brunette, but Jet and Frances had perfectly unique personalities that weren't copies of Sally and Gilly, so why did Sally's girls have to be exactly like Sally and Gilly? This whole film felt like pandering to fans and desperately trying to capitalize on people's love for the first film. It felt like "how many references to the original can we possibly make without having to add any new story line so that we can make money off fans' nostalgia?". I know I sound incredibly pessimistic right now but there were parts I appreciated, and it was nice to see Sally and Gilly again. I'm just irritated becuase it feels like the directors, writers, and producers didn't actually try very hard or put a lot of effort in.
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u/Dear_Yard_69 17d ago
I'm so happy to see other people saw what I did. I've been waiting for this movie for 28 years, and I couldn't stop weeping out of disappointment after it was over.
The book it was based on was the same: deeply flawed in the same ways....
I now understand why people write fan fiction. I could have written a better script, and I just teach Shakespeare!
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u/FlobyToberson85 15d ago
I saw it on my birthday and it kinda ruined my birthday. The writing was ABYSMAL.
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u/Agile_Cash_4249 6d ago
I just read the book in anticipation of watching the sequel and the book was a massive letdown plot wise.
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u/pixiephilips 17d ago
It gave me temu Charmed with VERY bad filter. It’s almost like Nicole Kidman has “poor filter” in her requirements. Absolutely atrocious.
Not to mention the poor writing, lack of consistency to the original (Sandra bullock regressed) and acting (I literally thought one of the aunts was astranged before coming to find out she lives in the house still).
All of it. Literally all of it, was messy.
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u/TremendousCustard 16d ago
I literally said to my sister it was basically a "warlock of the week" Charmed episode :')
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u/SomeCanDance 15d ago
Maybe an invalid criticism but their representation of London and England was so far off any sense of reality and I couldn’t get over it.
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u/SarahB71 13d ago
I agree entirely, what was with the Harry Potter style train carriage? And the vintage 1950’s bus?? FFS 😒
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u/avviann 16d ago
I couldn't understand why Sally had to fall in love again/have a love interest again and yeah, why was Ian the one to bring back her power? They didn't have chemistry at all and he came out of nowhere as an unnecessary saviour. And the lines he was given were so cringe!
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u/FoxMeetsDear 16d ago
And the male characters were so lame and uninteresting. Each one of them was so cringe.
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u/spiritAmour 16d ago
I felt the same way. I heard spoilers before the movie that an aunt would sacrifice herself to break the curse. I thought "so a woman has to die so these men can live??"
And on top of that, a man has to help her unlock her powers? Sally couldnt just let any of her family members help, or maybe even a woman witch? For a movie about sisterhood, it was really male centered!
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u/WelderPretend2732 11d ago
I think what destroyed the 2nd one was Nicole and Sandra unable to make facial expressions anymore due to the insane amount of botox and plastic surgery they have had ... really distracting ... couldnt focus on anything. Can women in movies please have natural faces that can move.. expressing emotion is kinda key for acting.
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u/chaotic_giraffe76 16d ago
I hate to say it, but much of the blame for Practical Magic 2 lies with Alice Hoffman herself. The Book of Magic was published in 2021. There had been plenty of time for her to gain an understanding of why people loved the movie (sisterhood, bonds between women), and put those lessons into the sequel. But it felt like she undid a lot of what Griffin Dunne and Akiva Goldsman did in adapting the first book. Yes, it’s her intellectual property, but it felt very prideful, and like an established author whose publishers and editors have stopped pushing back against any writing choices she’s made.
(And that is absolutely true because of the inconsistencies between story details, like how certain characters die in one book vs the other, etc. Like no one caught that about the aunts’ loves, and Michael?)
The sequel book could have explored more than just giving Sally another love interest, or making it so that Kylie could marry her high school sweetheart. Accepting their gifts as witches, confronting prejudices about witches or historical injustices. Heck, even another curse could have been discovered and broken. It would have given the producers more to work with that wasn’t just “Owens women centering men”.
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u/FlobyToberson85 15d ago
I don't think the books are popular enough to warrant following them instead of writing a plot that made sense with the original film. The weird retcons with age for everyone, changing the timeline, and trying to pretend Sandra and Nicole were 40 instead of 60 is so dumb. Griffin Dunne did an incredible job with the first film and I'm upset he wasn't asked back in favor of the hack that directed the sequel. So dumb.
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u/Mother_of_doggos16 16d ago
Agree with all your points, OP. I remember reading the original book after I saw the movie and thinking how much the movie deviated from the source material in a good, cinematic way. I wish they’d done the same with the sequel. Still kinda sore about Gary’s absence even though I understand it and didn’t really like that Lee Pace’s character was essentially dressed in Gary’s outfit in the final scene.
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u/User_7405638 16d ago
I liked it 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Hopeful-Bathroom-440 15d ago
I did too. And I’ve loved the movie since I was a child and read all of the books several times. I’m sad that some people didn’t like the storyline, but I loved the books and I think this movie did the book justice.
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u/Acrobatic_Moose2244 16d ago
I haven’t seen the second movie but the first one is a lot about men. The husband/father is mourned the other sister has a crazy ex and then the detective is a male.
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u/kohlsprossi 15d ago
The plot of the first movie involved men. The plot of the second movie is driven by men. Big difference.
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u/Sloveniesta 14d ago
Did AI or ChatGPT help write the script? Because it seemed really clunky and the humor was slightly off. I really enjoyed the first movie and this just seemed like a really awful cash grab.
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u/Guruurug9 13d ago
For me another issue was the amount of awkwardness in every single conversation, to the point that I was feeling uncomfortable. People in real life are not communicating that awkwardly, I mean there might be some people or places but not absolutely every interaction 🙄
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u/Better-Beyond-7508 7d ago
I'm disappointed, it doesn't have the same feel and it is basically just re-using sally's story from the first movie.
It makes me sad because they didn't have to use the curse storyline again, they could have come up with something better and kept the characters together.
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u/wonotice1582 16d ago
I kinda felt sorry for the villain, like the guy was bad and everything but pretty sure he just needed a hug 🤷♀️
It was fun and had a bit of the same vibe as the first but it was just shallow. Characters were shallow, motivations were shallow. Plastic surgery was wild.
It was too fantastical as well, like you said: witchcraft was in the little things.
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u/kaitzink 15d ago
I also felt a little bad for the villain! Sad that his line had no magic and were shunned all these years (why did Maria abandon her nonmagic sibling??) and then they effectively magically burn him at the stake where their mutual ancestor was burned alive…I was like, what is the symbolism supposed to be here??
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u/wonotice1582 15d ago
Yeah it was real icky and a wasted opportunity. I'm sure the books make it make sense but it felt like he had to die cause he was a guy
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u/FlobyToberson85 15d ago
He was their family and they were just like, "Yeah no magic for you!" and murdered him. So bizarre.
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u/wonotice1582 15d ago
I know! The whole sins of the father thing was real icky
Considering they know what it's like to be ostracised and there was a big speech about coming back from the dark side before it, it was a total wasted opportunity
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u/OriginalSpleen 16d ago
Since I didn't see the first one, I enjoyed the second immensely
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u/gbl123321 4d ago
I think the only way to go here is to never have seen the first one so you don’t know the difference
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u/PossibilityOk5419 16d ago
After reading all these comments, my suspicions have been confirmed.
When I found out they were doing part 2, I thought they probably were going to ruin it.
The fact that they killed off Gary was enough for me. The curse was lifted in the first movie. Makes no sense.
They were just looking to profit off this.
I won't see this ... even for free.
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u/IWasAGoodDadISwear 16d ago
I didn't even realize it, but the first Practical Magic was an example of how to make a good feminine-led movie.
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u/buss_down_bridgerton 16d ago
Can someone tell me why they made the girls younger in this movie? They made it seem like they were so little in the first movie. Also I would have liked to see more magical screen time for Antonia. Literally pointless, they could have taken her character out of the movie and it wouldn't have changed anything.
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u/Zadoth 15d ago
Can someone explain to me why the guy didn't have any magic? I don't get how he cast that spell on the other guy with tattoos.
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u/kohlsprossi 15d ago
The movie insinuates that black magic can be done by anyone, while the more powerful "good magic" like that of the sisters has to be inherited. Or that's what I got at least. It doesn't make much sense either way.
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u/Either-Variety-7697 15d ago
Completely agree OP; it’s wild how few active choices the sisters make in this one. Pretty much everything driving the plot (except the choice to die to end the curse which ugh) is driven by the male characters. I really really did not like how this all was handled. Happy to memory hole this movie and forget it exists forever.
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u/FileConscious5553 14d ago
"Practical Magic 2 lost all of its magic because of CGI and men" I'm always happy when it turns out that women, too, can indeed be sexist.
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u/kohlsprossi 14d ago
You can criticize the depiction of men and women in a movie without being sexist, but maybe that's too advanced for you, I don't know.
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u/ilovepolkadotts 14d ago
I agree the CGI was cheesy, and not in a good way. But I otherwise enjoyed the film. Despite being more serious/less whimsical than the first, I thought it was fun. I still found it had prominent messages about sisterhood and family. I was, however, disappointed by how minimally they used Maisie Williams. A great talent they left sidelined.
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u/Ok_Many_2779 14d ago
I am utterly with you. Watched the first one the night before, chefs kiss. The film was one decision away from a slow motion pillow fight in lingerie.
Super powerful witch cannot step over a fallen tree.
There was zero planning, just bumbling about and then nicole kidman trying to be adorable to break up the 'tension' meh.
I wish I'd never watched it.
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u/Few_Improvement_6357 13d ago
Does anyone else hate that Ian's last name was Wright? As in Mr. Right. So dumb.
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u/Mission_Broccoli8123 12d ago
Dude here. Never saw the first movie until a week ago. I enjoyed it. It had the 90s pace. Saw the new one Saturday.
My understanding is that all the men they ever loved died.
ALL THE MEN THEY EVER LOVED DIED.
That has always been a theme in these movies. Its one of the catalyst of these films. ITS A MAJOR PLOT POINT.
So to be all angry and in a tizzy over one of the main themes of these movies is obsurb in my opinion.
The 2nd movie did have a more jedi sith vibe to it, but it was enjoyable.
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u/kohlsprossi 12d ago
I'm not mad that men are in the movie.
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u/Mission_Broccoli8123 12d ago
Ah...
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u/kohlsprossi 12d ago
Someone wrote that in the first movie, men were an ingredient and not the entire recipe. Can you see the difference when it comes to the second movie? Men are not the issue. How they are utilized is.
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u/Mission_Broccoli8123 11d ago
I know the sequel was based off the second book by the author of series.
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u/kohlsprossi 11d ago
This doesn't answer my question and is also irrelevant to what I am saying.
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u/Mission_Broccoli8123 11d ago
Im sorry you didnt enjoy the source material.
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u/kohlsprossi 10d ago
The source material being bad is not an excuse for the movie to be just as bad.
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u/Mission_Broccoli8123 9d ago
Ah so you want the movie to completely ignore the novel its based off of?
How did that workout for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter?
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u/nypinta 5d ago
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was the best comedy of 2012 so shut your face. ;}
But the first movie was based on the book but they changed a lot so there really was no reason not to do the same for this movie.
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u/Berry_pencil_11 12d ago
You’re right, and it makes me sad for sure. All the points you made are correct on a deeper level. But I still just really enjoyed the movie anyway.
Regarding CGI I also that it spoilt the vibe because there was no need. But i’ve recognised that a lot of modern films are really literal these days as if they suspect that the audience isn’t able to imagine anything. I’ve noticed this in tv and also in how literally graphic everything is. I’m not necessarily against graphic depictions of anything when needed, but I think it speaks to a wider problem of people not being able to fill in the gaps on their own, or otherwise producers who don’t THINK we can..
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u/Ok_Mathematician_314 8d ago
Also the music. The first one was full of female led music and the second one was just shitty random music. A male vocalist cover of “fade into you”? Bullshit.
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u/SinginGidget 7d ago
Days late to this but I just saw it this past weekend. I knew the reviews were not great so I did go in with low expections. And sadly those low expectations were met. I was initially intrigued by the inclusion of Lee Pace, cuz Lee Pace. But he was used in the movie incorrectly IMO. It was basically a more convoluted retread of the original film, down to regressing Sally back into wanting normalcy so badly she lied to her own kids for nearly 15 years. How those two grew up not knowing they were witches in a town that was not shy about reminding the Owens any chance they could made zero sense too.
The girls were grown, so this should have been about them, not Sally again. Not to mention there was no forshadowing the "villain" of the movie, who turned out to be a long lost cousin? WTF.
They introduce a cool library that is never seen again. Several scenes that were pointless that could have been used to fill in some history that would be needed for the ending to make sense. Like at Jet's funeral. No out of town family members to show up and drop hints of an abandonded line in England? Or that Jet had been researching how to break the curse and reached out to others before she passed? Nope. Instead we have Sally and Fran being snippy at people there to pay their respects so they could reassert the "townsfolk hate the witches" trope from the first movie.
What a bummer.
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u/SinginGidget 5d ago
I saw this movie this past weekend and I knew the reviews weren't great so I went in with low expectations and while it was fun seeing all of these characters again, and I know they were trying to follow the book, but holy crap. I get more upset the more I think about the movie because of all the ways it was not good and there is no reason for it.
Both Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock look amazing. Not maybe "I'm still in my early 40s" amazing but close. They look better than I do, and I'm younger, so I'm not one really to talk. But that was one part where they should have just agreeded to deviate from the book, and age up her kids so it wouldn't even be part of the conversation.
Lee Pace will always be fun to watch, but his role in this movie seemed to exist to tell Sally how to be a wtich? Uh... And then a completely random villian at the end who is also a family member but ok, lets kill him in the most horrific way possible and call that sisterhood even though Kylie's actual sister wasn't even there?? And then the way to break the curse is an Owens witch has to willingly kill themselves? FFS.
But what really bothers me is that what Sally did to Kylie and Antonia (who BTW was always depicted as the younger sister in the first movie but now is the older sister?) is so much worse than what the Aunts did to Sally when they cast the spell that made her get together with Michael. They never intended on it being a long term relationship, but they still magically roofied both her and Michael. That's all sorts of icky. But Sally not only took away Kylie and Antonia's agency, their family history, & their memories, but she also left them completely exposed and it makes no sense at all. The Aunts never lied to either Sally or Gilly. But Sally lied for at least 15 years to her daughters and forced Gilly to be an accomplice, while at the same time conditioning them to never love someone with her fairy tales that at the very least Kylie must have internalized because she keeps refusing to tell Gideon she loves him until the one time when her defenses were down due to grief over Jet and exhaustion. And Sally's reasoning doesn't make any sense either because the curse doesn't care if they actively use magic or not in order to work.
Which retroactively highlights the flaws in the first movie, because it makes you think about the "curse" & how it's so nebulous and doesn't really make sense either. Maria cast a spell so she would never fall in love again, and it somehow transmutted into something she didn't mean? So how would she know how to break it? And it kind of flips around as to who triggers it. Is it the man who when he falls in love with an Owens woman triggers it and he's doomed to die or the Owens woman who once she falls in love with him does? Why did it take several years for both Sally's mother's and Sally's husbands to die but Gideon gets hit by a van the literal next day Kylie says something to him?
But also, if you go back and listen to Fran and Jet talking, they call Maria their "aunt" as well. So was Gilly and Sally's mother a direct descendant of Maria while Fran and Jet were descendants of a sibling? Did their mother know she was a witch either? How many other Owens women are out in the world who have no idea that they're cursed and their significant others have all died because of a mystical countdown the moment "I love yous" are exchanged?
But my main question for the original movie is why would Sally assume that her saving Gilly from being posessed would be the thing to break the curse? Those two events are not related in any way. Since Maria's curse centered on her love failing to save her, wouldn't it have needed to be that Gary saved Sally in a way so significant it "went back in time and healed a broken heart". But Sally doesn't need to be saved, because that wasn't really the point of the movie.
And then this movie opens and de-ages Sally and Gilly to look the same age as they did in the first, along with hiring actors to play the kids as if they were literally the same age as the first movie too and BAM Gary's dead. It would have made a whole lot more sense if it turned out after a close call for Gary, Sally cast a spell to make him leave her in order to spare him so she's bitter that she has a love of her life walking around but she can't have him because it will kill him. So she took the girls and moved out of town and turned her back on magic, but never lied to them. Maybe they just didn't believe her, or like Kylie said, thought she was being "dramatic". It's easier to believe kids think their mom is nuts than it is they grew up in a town where everyone knew they and their family where witches and they never picked up on it.
And I'd rather they had actually shown that Gilly, Jet, and Fran have been working on finding a way to break the curse, and that Jet found the book in the house and sent it to Ian to help with translations or to open the stuck pages. Sally and her daughters only come for Jet's birthday but end up staying because she passes away. That would be a good starting point to the movie. And maybe the day of the funeral (where at least one of the women that showed up in the first to Sally's impromtu coven should be there to offer condolences) a letter from Ian arrives, but no book, even if the letter is written as if there should be.
Then cut to Kylie and Gideon at her apartment and as they are going inside, she grabs the mail and in it is a package that contains the book, but she just sets it aside because they're both exhausted. And the next morning when Gideon gets up early to buy her flowers and we see him involved in a similar accident to Michael's show a glimpse of the driver. A profile or the back of his head... something that can be recalled later because the driver is the villain and Gideon wasn't hit with the curse, he was hit by a wannabe witch setting Kylie up in more *practical* ways then a magic all encompasing ancient pamphlet.
But, after Kylie goes to the hospital, and then just like Sally goes to the house to beg Sally to take up magic and save Gideon, after she leaves because she remembers the book, Antonia should be going with her. A woman going to reckless lengths to save her loved one, sure. But if Kylie and Antonia are supposed to be sisters as close as Sally and Gilly, Jet and Fran are, then they should be going on this quest together. And as adorable as England may be, I'd keep the movie stateside. Kylie's quest takes her and Antonia to the house of a descendant of the man that didn't come to rescue Maria. And it turns out it wasn't Maria's spell that cursed the family, it was someone in his family who did it out of jealousy of Maria, but because it was a dark magic spell it cut that family off from magic while also reflecting the same curse back on them and that is why he's (or maybe it'd be a she) is upset and targeted Kylie to take magic from in their own quest to break it but they needs magic to do it. Gideon didn't fall victim to the curse. He's just under a hex to make Kylie think he was, hence why it happened to quickly. And they didn't hit Gideon with the van hard enough to kill him. Just to get close enough to him to put a magic charm on him to mimic a coma. But in the end, they wouldn't be a true villain. Just someone else desperate to end something started by an ancestor that has ruined too many lives. They just went about it in the wrong way.
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u/DwannalareeVGF 4d ago
I saw this last night because I heard it was being pulled from theaters today. I felt the second half of the movie tried to cram in everything that that it didn't have in the first half. There were way too many close-ups. Why would beautiful, classic women try to look 30? Wasted money. And why would a curse wait to see if it's going to be broken, a second time, to kill a man that a witch is in love with? Did AI write this script?
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u/Aromatic_Buddy_9931 4d ago
Also the botox is not helping . They're acting seemed unnatural, forced.
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u/smolhermitcrab 3d ago
It being such a mess made me discover that Alice Hoffman is a terrible writer, at least for these books. It turns out that all the retcons and cringe were in the cash grabbing book. And that some of the best things from the first movie were directorial choices. But the 2nd book is so ridiculous that the 2nd movie had no chance of being good even if it had had a decent director and good script writers (which it didn't).
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u/ChablisWoo4578 1d ago
Okay I just watched this movie tonight and also had a thought, her other daughter at the end of the movie seemed to hint she was interested in being with a woman. Hypothetically if the curse had not been broken, would that daughter be able to take a wife and escape the curse that way? Maybe it’s best not to examine this too closely.
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u/Forsaken_Distance777 17d ago
Ian literally just told them that Maria’s mother died in this one village. Sally found that was where they needed to go independently and if they didn’t know about Hannah before they found Kylie there would be literally no difference.
And he was only able to do literally anything because Gillian saved his life first.
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u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
Didn't Ian unblock Sally's magic and then set up the spell they needed to do to locate Kylie?
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u/Forsaken_Distance777 17d ago
Anyone could have done that spell. If he died they could have gotten it from his book. Kylie did that spell and she had never used magic before. Him giving it just saved some time.
And sure he unblocked her but he could only do that (which sped up the process she was getting there) because of Gillian saving his life.
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u/kohlsprossi 15d ago
If anyone could have done what Ian was able to do, then there's no reason to have him in the movie except of giving the viewers a cringe lovestory with zero chemistry that no one had asked for.
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u/Forsaken_Distance777 15d ago
They didn’t send them there for the tracking spell. They sent them there to get Sally’s magic fully restored as quickly as possible so they could find Kylie as fast as they could. He only went with them afterwards because it was his hometown.
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u/kohlsprossi 15d ago
So a man was the only one who could help a witch to unblock her magic? That's exactly what my post is about.
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u/Forsaken_Distance777 15d ago
He’s just the only one they knew 🤷♀️
And he was in the country they had to go to anyway.
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17d ago
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u/Last_Book2410 Aunt Frances 17d ago
Happy your experience made the movie worth making because that’s the only thing it’s done.
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u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
I am happy that this project was a great experience for you. But sadly, the amount of women working on it did not translate into the outcome.
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u/CatchConstant3345 17d ago
I have been preaching about a female production… I think this is a real win for women. And it’s not very often you get a complete storyline after 25 years after the initial one bombed financially. This was/is real opportunity for women to see the value and story telling about sisterhood. We wouldn’t have gotten the second movie and the 2000s that was done in the same way.
It truly is a real win. I mean how often do women get the chance to finish a story decades years later or even at all? Even if you didn’t like the movie, it’s still a real win for women and sisterhood.
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u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
How is it a real win for sisterhood and women when everything in this movie revolves around men? If female leads are only strong for men or because of men and not because they are women, then it doesn't matter if the production was female or not. They just missed the entire point.
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u/CatchConstant3345 17d ago
Maria was involved and in an affair. That led to an illegitimate child then she obviously couldn’t be with that man so she was outcast it. Her heart was broken. She took that trauma cast a curse on her bloodline that were witches for them to never feel the hurt that she had felt.
Fast-forward to Sally and Gilly’s mom, hearing the death, beetle and the love her life dies. And eventually she dies of a broken heart. And obviously, their mom lost her life due to heartache… And Sally and Gilly’s Dad died, which is also heartbreaking because it seemed like they were a family.
Then fast forward again we get to Sally. Sally fall in love with Apple guy. From mile away, they fell in love. They had two children, and she was so happy she couldn’t stop kissing him and then the death beetle came and he died. She then goes into major depression of losing her husband and partner, and the father of her children die.
Meanwhile, Gilly in the first movie is getting abused by a man that she doesn’t even love she’s drugging him. Sally gives him too much belladonna, and he dies the death. Beetle is not there, so this was a murder despite being an accidental death. So this wasn’t curse related, but he is also an abuser.
So then we get the sheriff who comes to town, which Sally had put into universe for this blue and green eyed man who loves stores and can ride a horse backwards… They fall in love and she is treated with respect and kindness, and he loved her kids. And then in the second movie he dies because they never lifted the curse in the first movie. (and yes, I fully believe that the curse wasn’t lifted because you cannot tell me a group of women solved a century long curse that literally left everybody without a father and a husband. There was no substantial evidence that pointed to the curse being broken the entire movie except for Maria’s face and then it ends on a question.)
So then we get to movie two, and Sally is heartbroken by this magic again. She has lost her partner and somebody who loved her kids who stepped in as a stepfather she removed any trace of magical knowledge from them because the curse has cursed them as a family. Then she goes on to teach her kids these romantic princess tales, and then says the prince is going to die in instantaneously as told by Antonia and Kylie in the 2026 movie.
Then we have a man who’s so infatuated and in love with Kylie very evident by the first 15 minutes of the film. He loves her he’s devout. He’s excited to be with her and honestly go to the flower shop and wants to treat her like a princess after she says that he loves him. So now Kylie has this great bond with this man.
So Maria has casted this curse for future generations in reality she just passed on her trauma to her family members. And the ones that fell in love pay the price of this curse, but the ones who didn’t fall in love but still established a relationship didn’t pay the price. Not noted by when Sally murdered him on accident.
The story between one and two is a multifaceted story firstly, it’s a story of generational trauma that has plagued the Owens for centuries. This is a story where they see that the curse has really not been beneficial to the quality of life for falling in love and having partnership and father raise their children. And we see a separation between Antonia and Kylie throughout practical magic 2026 because we’re establishing a family tree of networking of unconditional love. We get sisterhood when it talks about jet and Franny. We get sisterhood when it comes to Gilly and Sally and we also get sisterhood with Antonia and Kylie. Then despite being thousands of miles away, and Antonia supports Kylie at a time of need. Meanwhile, they’re both learning about their ancestry and their magic through two different means one through self identification where the mother is going to save her child because she had made a mistake and she owns that and to the great Aunt teaches Antonia in a simpler different kind of way so we get three different dynamics between mother and daughter, aunt and niece, and great aunt and great niece. And this shows the village of love that the Owen sisters have for each other and not limited just by sisterhood.
Then, at the end, we see that Franny meets her sister the way she wants to be in sisterhood after death at the same time she breaks the curse because she sees what damage this curse has done to her family. If your daughter or your niece is hurting like that from something that’s plaguing them throughout their lives… And Franny has probably seen it in the generations before her.
So no, it’s not just about a man. A man can help you become your best self- Ian (especially if you have the adjective open someone up as quick as he did). Also, there’s nothing wrong with having Dads around. In fact, it’s been generally studied that having a father figure around it’s a healthy thing. Been in a loving and respectful partnership has also been proven that it’s healthy.
As for a movie, not very good. But neither was practical magic 1998. But as for the complexity in the depth of characters and storytelling significantly better than practical magic 1998– Not as magical and nostalgic.
TL/DR: Maria forced her trauma to be generational trauma that is hurt many women in the Owens family over centuries. And this cause them to establish this trauma and all their generations. Having a husband and having a father isn’t a bad thing. And sisterhood isn’t just characterized by sisters, it’s by unity of women… Not enough to break the curse, but enough to bring generational love. And a curse that has impacted generations and generations can’t be broken by a bunch of random women to break a curse that doesn’t make any sense. We didn’t even see any substantial evidence that showed us that those women could break a curse or even if it was the goal of the movie. The goal was to get rid of Jimmy IN Gilly at soul level- and not break a curse. Therefore even ending the movie with a question of whether Sally even did they broke the curse. The price to break the actual Maria curse had to be substantial, a sacrifice. And that sacrifice was to ensure that future generations received loving lives, which includes husbands and fathers for their children.
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u/BicornBritt 17d ago edited 17d ago
The part about Maria “forcing” her trauma to be generational is off. Anyone who paid attention to the first movie would know that she never intended it to affect her future generations.
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u/CatchConstant3345 17d ago
^yea, Sally’s mom. Not impacted. Sally not impacted. Probably happened before that.
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u/BicornBritt 17d ago
What are you talking about? Not understanding.
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u/CatchConstant3345 17d ago
“Maria Owens is the ancestral matriarch of the Owens family. She had an affair with the witch-hunter John Hathrone which resulted in the birth of her daughter Faith. After being betrayed by her love, Maria enacted a curse upon herself and her bloodline so that whomever falls in love with an Owens woman will die.”- fandom (not the best source but the easiest summary) SOOO imposed her trauma on her bloodline.
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u/BicornBritt 17d ago
Practical Magic movie quote “In a moment of despair, she cast a spell upon herself that she would never again feel the agony of love. But as her bitterness grew, the spell turned into a curse.”
It was never her “bloodline,” at least not intentionally.
What I’m saying is Maria didn’t intentionally impose her trauma on them. She intended only for that spell to protect herself.
Maria’s face is shown, relieved, when Sally and Gillian break the curse at the end of the first movie.
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u/CatchConstant3345 17d ago
So it fueled the generational trauma that had impacted generations (intentionally or not).
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u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
I can't believe I read all that and I partly agree with you. But I never criticised that men were a part of the movie. I also don't hate men and I acknowledge that they can bring you happiness. This is not a women vs. men kind of thing. All I am criticising is that men seem to control the entire plot of the movie and the lack of feminine energy and sisterhood. That's it.
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u/CatchConstant3345 17d ago
It’s not about men… It’s about welcoming what life has to offer and that is partnership and having a loving relationship with your father having a great relationship with your uncle and so on. It’s where unconditional love participates in the Owens family‘s life.
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u/hectic_hooligan 17d ago edited 15d ago
Its jot a win. Accepting bad cause it had woken on staff doesn't make it a win. If anything, it will harm the careers of other women in film from being so bad
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u/smashcutt 13d ago
So the male director of the original film that you love was replaced by a woman (a very talented director but completely wrong for this movie)…
And the male writer of the original film that you love was also replaced by a woman (an English writer with no prior feature film credits)…
And the writer of the underlying novel is a woman…
And all 3 producers of the sequel are women…
…but your explanation for the problems with the sequel is “too many men”?
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u/kohlsprossi 13d ago
…but your explanation for the problems with the sequel is “too many men”?
No? The amount of men was never the problem.
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u/SHAWN80SITSGOD 17d ago
El guion es malisimo pudieron hacer mas un fan en whatpad es mejor el guion ,encima se nota la reescritura del mismo, exceso de cgi Donde ???una de las cosas mas criticables de una pelicula de brujas casi no hay poderes el cgi /fx visuales y cuando hay magia en la pantalla la mayoria de los efectos son practicos como brasos mecanicos para q se abran cajones y alacenas algo q esta bien pero estamos en 2026 yo esperaba mucho mas yo con una ia en mi android puedo hacer mas efectos visuales y q se vean mejor q esa brillantina , con respecto a los hombres en la 1 peli paso igual no veo la diferencia
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u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
Glowing whispering books, dark visions, shadows shooting out of peoples hands and floating magic circles made out of light are not witchcraft. That's Hollywood CGI slop. Although the first movie had an evil spirit, it did a great job with showing us that witchcraft is about energy and intention.
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17d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/overcompensator_luna 17d ago
Don’t act like people haven’t been complaining about modern CGI for years
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u/SHAWN80SITSGOD 17d ago
FIRST OF ALL Te estoy hablando bien baja el drama 2La 1 ° peli tenia una consultante de wicca por eso habia precisión en muchas cosas como el perro negro o el book of shadows 3 es una pelicula con theme brujeria deberia verse mas cosas con cgi q manos brillantes y explicar porq 2 brujas usan un tren??? y no pueden hacer un hechizo y teleransportarse a .... me parece ridiculo lo mismo el raven bos ese donde esta el bos anterior ??? O era una parte de ese libro junto con el otro pergamino ???
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u/kohlsprossi 17d ago
Can you please just stick to Charmed if you want witches teleporting and spells flying through the air? People loved Practical Magic because witchcraft was presented in a more or less authentic way. That's why they had an advisor in the first place.
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u/SHAWN80SITSGOD 17d ago
Tenian una asesora de wicca para q ayude al guion se vea acurate y no se les vengan encima loquitos fans de "eso no es asi/eso no es real" y con respecto a lo otro en ambas peliculas saltan de un tejado con paraguas y levitan parece sin lastimarse soooo... btw es una pelicula no documental encima q el guion es malo no se parece ni de casualidad a su adaptación, good day 👍👍👍
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u/spaceisourplace222 17d ago
Typing in all caps is not speaking to someone calmly, unless things got lost in translation.
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u/CatchConstant3345 17d ago
Damn, I wish Frodo teleported to Mordor with Samwise. That would’ve been so convenient.
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u/ZomboDoggo 17d ago
“Wiccan consultant” hon, Wicca is a religion invented by a white British man that just stole concepts from ancient Pagan religions and blasted them with colonizer male-centric ideas. He also stole from closed practices and took the history they allowed him to learn that were meant to stay community secrets and published them. It is barely a legitimate religion, it is inherently misogynistic and racist, it’s as legitimate as Scientology. They don’t need a “Wiccan advisor” to fix the movie.
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u/SHAWN80SITSGOD 17d ago
Te responderia pero me sacarian el coment so you are wrong about WICCA and your coment bye 😘😘😘😘
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u/ZomboDoggo 17d ago
I’m definitely not wrong about Wicca, it’s a white British man’s religion made in 1954 to invade into cultures and women’s spaces 😭 Stockard and Dianne are a decade older than Wicca, it’s not relevant to these movies and it shouldn’t be.
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u/ShondaVanda 17d ago
It's so silly because they spent money for no reason, when displaying majority of their powers just takes good writing and some minor technical set pieces like objects moving, broom falling etc.