Taylor Gates is an Indiana native who earned her BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Evansville. She fell in love with entertainment by watching shows about chaotic families like Full House, The Nanny, Gilmore Girls, and The Fosters.
After college, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a writer, editor, and filmmaker. Today, she’s a sucker for dramedies — especially coming-of-age stories centering around complex female and LGBTQ+ characters. She has been with Collider since May 2022.
Whether you look forward to legacy sequels, eager to catch up with your favorite characters from decades past, or think of them as nothing more than desperate cash grabs, there’s no denying that they’re trending right now. Sometimes, in the case of films like ***Top Gun: Maverick ***or Creed, they’re well received, reaching the same commercial and critical heights as their predecessors or even exceeding them. In other cases, they’re so bad that they cheapen the original, threatening to sully the entire brand — think of Zoolander 2, Independence Day: Resurgence, or ***Jurassic World Dominion, ***just to name a few.
2026 has already had a solid run of strong legacy sequels; 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and The Devil Wears Prada 2 are both critically acclaimed and have been praised for blending nostalgia with fresh, relevant themes. So perhaps it was too much to ask that Practical Magic 2 follow in their footsteps. As someone who watches the original nearly every fall, I went in with high expectations, hoping the fact that the original cast had returned (minus **Evan Rachel Wood — **more on that later) was a sign that we were in for something, well, magical.
While it seems like the cast truly had a good time making it, unfortunately, that fun doesn’t translate to audience members watching it. Practical Magic 2 lacks the charm, whimsy, and heart that made the original film a classic; instead, it’s a mess, with a plot both convoluted and bland that will put no one under its spell.
Practical Magic 2 opens with a reveal: the curse that has followed the Owens women for generations, dooming everyone they fall in love with to die a terrible death, has not yet been broken. Scarred by the loss of Michael (Mark Feuerstein) and Gary (Aidan Quinn), Sally (Sandra Bullock) made the decision to erase all memories of magic from the minds of her young daughters Kylie (Joey King) and Antonia’s (Maisie Williams). She also makes her sister Gillian (Nicole Kidman) swear not to tell them about their powers, and refuses to practice witchcraft herself.
A few decades later, the Owens women reunite for Jet’s (Dianne Wiest) birthday party, though the celebration is cut short by a tragedy which sets off a chain of events that throws the whole family into peril. Soon, shocking truths and long-buried secrets are brought to light.** In an effort to uncover her history and break the curse once and for all, Kylie flees to London**, with Sally and Gillian following close behind and teaming up with an academic named Ian (Lee Pace) to locate her. However, a dark, mysterious warlock named Thomas (Solly McLeod) and the rapidly declining health of Kylie’s boyfriend (Xolo Maridueña) complicate matters.
The most glaring issues with Practical Magic 2 lie in its script, which consists of a never-ending series of baffling narrative decisions and plot holes. The sequel feels both inconsistent with the canon of the first film and like it’s tiredly retreading character arcs that came to a neat conclusion at the end of the 1998 movie. Magic books with hidden solutions and random relatives come out of nowhere. The motivations behind Sally’s decision to keep her daughters from knowing about their magical heritage are flimsy at best and only fall further apart as the plot progresses, with the conflict between her and Gillian especially weak.
The dialogue is painfully expository and elementary, with characters often repeating the same idea multiple times, rehashing events the audience just saw, or spelling out things that have already been clearly implied. It feels designed for second-screen viewing, rewarding those who obnoxiously pull their phones out in movie theaters or are waiting to half-watch it on streaming while folding laundry or doing their daily Duolingo lesson. The sluggish pacing and flatness of the writing make even the life-or-death situations lack stakes or emotional impact, and the moments of humor largely don’t land either, rendering it ineffective as both a drama and comedy.
Kidman and Bullock do their best with what they have, and any enjoyment one can feel while watching is solely due to their shared charisma and chemistry. Their sisterhood is one of the few things that comes off as authentic, whether they’re going at each other’s throats during a tense argument or playfully bickering in a more lighthearted moment. One only wishes they got meatier material, with Bullock relegated to quirky anxiety and making silly faces for the majority of her screentime and Kidman mainly along for the ride. Bullock’s complex romantic dynamic with Pace is a bright spot of the film, even if his character is ultimately half-baked and somewhat contrived.
Despite the (very valid) controversy surrounding the news that Joey King would be replacing Evan Rachel Wood against her wishes due to the story aging down the daughters, King’s performance is arguably the most solid of the bunch — though to be fair, the script gives her the most to play with. She manages to tap into palpable sadness and fear while taking up the more reckless, wildcard mantle that Kidman showcased with Gillian in the first film. While relatively predictable, her plotline and performance are effective nonetheless. Still, one can’t help but wonder what a different direction with Wood’s inclusion — perhaps one more creative and adult — could have looked like.
The film fails all of its performers, but none more so than Maisie Williams and Stockard Channing. The two are largely isolated from the main plot and given nothing of substance to do. Antonia is clearly meant to take after Sally, but her entire personality consists of being a responsible nurse. Meanwhile, Channing’s Frances has a few endearing moments with Jet, but the fate of their characters is borderline insulting to their legacies.
One of the best parts of Practical Magic is the cozy, immersive vibe it exudes through its autumnal New England setting, so it’s puzzling that the sequel doesn’t capitalize on either of these elements. No hate to London, but why revisit the beloved community from the first movie, only to almost immediately rip us away from it?
In addition to going global, Practical Magic 2 insists on going bigger with its magic as well. Part of the charm of the original film was how grounded and small the magic felt, while the sequel presents the powers much more in the vein of a superhero film, stripping them of the whimsy that characterized the original. There are interesting visuals here and there, especially when the film leans into the more purely horror influences, but much of it comes off as cookie-cutter.
The film finally finds its groove during the last 10 minutes or so — sweetly paying tribute to the original and feeling nostalgic in a good way — but by that point, it’s too late, and that’s the most heartbreaking part. It’s evidence that Practical Magic 2 had all the potential to be a satisfying follow-up but falls short in almost every way.
In the first few minutes of the film, viewers see Kiley and Antonia having their memories of witchcraft wiped from their minds. Sadly, you’re likely to experience a similar phenomenon as you walk out of the theater. Practical Magic 2 is painfully forgettable, with no particularly clever or impactful quotes, impressive setpieces, or emotionally resonant moments that will stay with you after the credits roll. I don’t see myself revisiting this one next Halloween. In fact, I’ll be surprised if I remember it exists at all.
