I am far from a fan of the original Hocus Pocus, but I knew I'd be watching this sequel because my wife is a big fan of it. This film was everything I expected, but that isn't a great thing. For starters, it is completely in love with the original film. Almost every beat of this film is a callback to what people remember. Some plot elements are just completely copied from that movie. In fact, one of the main adult characters is basically the movie's representation of a Hocus Pocus fanatic. As you might expect the 3 leads are definitely showing their age. They still seem to be excited about their roles (in particular Bette Midler,) and even had a couple of songs to sing, but they definitely have lost a step. It doesn't make a ton of sense thematically that they would be older, but I guess you're just supposed to go with it.
What I certainly didn't expect was that Hocus Pocus 2 would be an elaborate commercial for Walgreens. I've seen my fair share of product placement in the past, but this is to an extreme. It genuinely felt like a cheap commercial for the store was plopped right in the middle of the movie for no good reason. Otherwise, the plot of this film isn't terrible. The opening sequence with the witches as young girls was cute. I can't say I'm all that surprised to find they tried to make the sisters more sympathetic, it seems to be the way modern "re-quels" are trending. The young girls that star in the film are not bad, and their storyline kind of works. The return of Billy was extremely clunky and pointless, but was another box they probably felt needed to be checked. It was tolerable once, but I sure hope I don't have to watch Hocus Pocus 2 again.
What I certainly didn't expect was that Hocus Pocus 2 would be an elaborate commercial for Walgreens. I've seen my fair share of product placement in the past, but this is to an extreme. It genuinely felt like a cheap commercial for the store was plopped right in the middle of the movie for no good reason. Otherwise, the plot of this film isn't terrible. The opening sequence with the witches as young girls was cute. I can't say I'm all that surprised to find they tried to make the sisters more sympathetic, it seems to be the way modern "re-quels" are trending. The young girls that star in the film are not bad, and their storyline kind of works. The return of Billy was extremely clunky and pointless, but was another box they probably felt needed to be checked. It was tolerable once, but I sure hope I don't have to watch Hocus Pocus 2 again.