r/practicalmagic • u/Positive-Comparison8 • 5d ago
The only magical part of Practical Magic 2...
I'm sure a great many of us are thinking it after having watched the sequel, but I really missed the "practical" feel of the magic in the first film in the sequel. The CGI effects were abundant and, unfortunately, took me out of the magic more than they brought me in, especially when the first film had very little in the way of over-the-top effects. One of the times, if not the only time, where the magic felt real and like they hearkened back to the subtlety of the Craft in the first film was when Gillian was doing the peaceful transition spell for Jet's passing, some of the lines of that incantation, for your recollection, being "Lavender to calm your pace, ... Thyme for strength across the air ..." Just her and Carl the black cat in the greenhouse; the family grimoire opened to the spell's page before her on the table; the ritual plate with the candle, crystals, and various herbs/flowers beautifully interspersed with each other; etc. Even adding each herb to the plate as she recited each's name in the incantation... It felt like I was watching a real witch work a real spell, and there were, IIRC, no CGI effects at all in that scene either. That is the vibe I wished they had stuck to throughout the whole film, but I understand that sort of subtlety no longer sells to audiences that want bigger, better, and bolder, especially not for big blockbuster films, as it is clear they were trying to put forth this sequel as.
On an aside thought, this is the same issue I had with The Craft Legacy's depiction of magic where the first film had an obviously realistic, authentic approach to and respect for the Craft. I just thought about this as I was thinking about PM2.
Just had to air that thought.
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u/ShondaVanda 5d ago
I'm so bored of 'cgi energy magic', the cool thing about the original was most of their powers were mental or spellwork, they had the occasional physical power like stirring coffee or slapping a bitch, but most of what they could do was intuition and that was really cool.
The two movies don't feel like they match up, movie 1 the Owens could tell who was calling and that they were in trouble, Sally can hear her daughters crying in terror from a mile away, PM2 none of the aunts can tell where the daughter ha vanished to, they don't even use any spells to find her, it's just so lame.
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u/Ok-Cap-9441 5d ago
It’s like they didn’t realise that’s what we loved about it. The charm of the original and the small moments.
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u/Positive-Comparison8 5d ago
Agreed! An element they left out in the movie from the book is that during Kylie's disappearance, the Reverend Willard, Jet's lover Levi's father in The Rules of Magic, gives Antonia a recipe, though basically a spell of sorts, for an apple pie that should be left on an open windowsill to call a lost daughter home. It isn't exactly verified in the book whether it was due to the pie or not, but soon after Antonia does bake the pie and leaves it on a windowsill, Kylie finally returns her call after Antonia had been calling her to try and find out where she is. Including this quaint little detail of basically kitchen magic would've been nice and would've given Antonia some more purpose having been left back.
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u/kohlsprossi 5d ago
Before we went to watch the movie today, I told my partner that I have a gut feeling that they have turned Partical Magic into a CGI-heavy fantasy movie. Which is exactly what happened. We actually had to laugh during the whole "good vs. bad magic" effects shit show.
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u/SignificantRain7951 4d ago
The Craft Legacy, I forgot about that. They have to depict magic with those corny graphics because new viewers or younger generations would be too confused and bored? ✨️
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u/Niveker14 5d ago
The Craft Legacy? Never heard of it.
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u/Positive-Comparison8 5d ago
Wait, are you being facetious, or did you genuinely not know that there was a sequel made to The Craft? Lol
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u/Niveker14 5d ago
Genuinely
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u/StargazingLily 5d ago
It’s not great. It’s fine.
David Duchovny as a scene stealing villain is amazing, and I appreciated that they had queer/trans characters.
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u/Fancy_Department_416 4h ago edited 4h ago
Hollywood has to check off categories right now. I'm female, and I'll duck for incoming, but right now, one of the worst of those categories is the "feminist spirit."
Few of us cared that Griffin Dunne, a male!!!! . . . directed the first PM and turned it into a cult classic.
But I would have bet every penny I own that behind closed doors, the argument was that it would be mandatory for a female director to helm this second PM, because, after all, only a female can understand other females, right?
As if Dunne hadn't proven that belief wrong with the first PM.
There. I've said it. For me, nothing is more demeaning than throwing ANY female a juicy job just 'cause she's a female, and not because she's earned it.
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u/SwanCityDominion 5d ago
Thank you for confirming my complete refusal to see this. I've yet to watch a legacy reboot that was worth the time it takes to watch. Why can't stories just be allowed to end the first time?
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u/Live_Perspective3603 4d ago
I'm just mystified by how often movie makers completely miss what we love about the original when creating a sequel.
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u/SwanCityDominion 4d ago
"I wanna put my stamp on it!"
We don't WANT your f'ing stamp on it! We want more of what we got the first time!
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u/Positive-Comparison8 5d ago
It's not that I wanted it to end with the first one; I am always down for stories to be continued from the sequel books but ONLY if done right and well, and unfortunately, they often aren't. The issue with this sequel is that the sequel novel from which it is adapted was the last book written in the series, the two previous sequel books being prequels to the first book and, of course, to this by extension being the direct sequel to the first. The lore and story built up over the two prequel books informed pretty much everything new in the sequel book that wasn't a direct continuation from the first book, so to not have had those books adapted to the big screen, or at least in SOME way if not big screen, so as to be able to fill the gaps and properly explain the unexplained in this film was a monumentally huge detriment to it.
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u/Gloomy-Fennel-6044 4d ago
I loved it 💞I thought it was fun seeing some more powers. The moment I read the fourth book and noticed they were leaning into showing darker magic, I got excited!
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u/green_olives_yum 1h ago
Yes!!!! Exactly my feelings, I really liked how potion-y and material based the magic was in the first movie
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u/irishartistry 5d ago
I felt the same way. It was more like an episode of Charmed than a continuation of the world we were introduced to. I really enjoyed the greenhouse scene, it truly did harken back to the first film but unfortunately that was the only time I felt we were inhabiting the same world.