Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman reprise their roles in "Practical Magic 2" courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Returning to the Owens family in “Practical Magic 2” is both comforting and frustrating. The sequel delivers emotional reunions, painful goodbyes and reminders of why the Owens women are worth revisiting. But beneath the magical spectacle is a story that spends too much time retracing Sally’s footsteps and too little exploring the women following in them.

Sally (Sandra Bullock “Bullet Train,” “The Lost City”) has buried her magic along with her second husband. She has kept her daughters, Kylie (Joey King “Uglies,” “A Family Affair”) and Antonia (Maisie Williams “The Luckiest Man in America,” “The New Look”), from knowing they are witches, hoping to spare them the pain that comes with the family’s curse. Things are going according to Sally’s plan, that is, until Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest “Apartment 7A,” “Mayor of Kingstown”) discovers the book of the ravens, containing secrets of their family’s curse. Unfortunately, the death beetle has come click-clacking around. All of the Owens women hear it—except for Sally, who has shut out that part of her completely.

Sally’s daughters have been told all their lives to keep love at a distance, that it isn’t meant for Owens women. Thinking this is due to their mother’s misfortune in love, they do not take the warning to heart. That is until Kylie tells her boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Maridueña “Cobra Kai,” “Blue Beetle”) she loves him, and he immediately suffers a devastating accident. The accident exposes Sally’s secrets and sends Sally and Gillian (Nicole Kidman “Lioness,” “Nine Perfect Strangers”) across the sea after Kylie as she searches for a way to break the curse.

While I am happy to get the chance to explore a new generation of the Owens family, the film feels as if it was stuck in limbo between past and present. Sally’s character has regressed to what she was at the beginning of the first film—much of her earlier growth seems to have been undone. While being widowed twice due to the family curse has justifiably done some damage to her psyche, the film makes her repeat her journey from the first movie without fully exploring that grief. Instead, she bonds with her sister, meets a tall, dark and handsome man, and finds herself again through him. This makes Sally feel surface-level, as if her return to magic and sense of self depend on her love for a man.

What makes Sally’s choices frustrating is that her desire to protect her daughters leaves them unprepared. Keeping them from knowing they are witches does not remove the curse or stop their powers from surfacing. It simply means they do not understand what is happening when those things begin to affect their lives. Kylie is left searching for answers that her mother could have helped her understand long before she needed them. Sally’s fear of losing her daughters creates distance between them. Gillian, who is more open about who she is, has become someone the girls feel comfortable confiding in. This tension has consequences beyond Sally’s unhappiness, but I wanted more time exploring that broken trust and what it would take to rebuild—instead of the quick, cute bow on the end of the film.

Another issue I found with the movie was the role of Sally’s daughters. In the beginning, a beautiful parallel of Kylie and Gillian and Antonia and Sally is established, yet instead of exploring these dynamics, they are abandoned. Kylie is at the forefront of the film; instead of embracing the classic sisterly dynamic that “Practical Magic” is known for and focusing on her and Antonia, the film shifts to simultaneously focus on Sally and Gillian’s sisterhood and Sally and Kylie’s mother-daughter dynamic. Antonia’s character seems like more of an afterthought, kept in the B-plot with Aunt Franny (Stockard Channing “Knuckles,” “Maryland”), while Kylie, Sally and Gillian have a magical adventure across the sea.

Bullock and Kidman’s chemistry remains one of the film’s greatest strengths. Their portrayal of Sally and Gillian makes the sisters feel like soulmates, bound by a love that persists through disagreements, distance and dangerous decisions. Even when they are frustrated with each other, there is never much doubt that one will show up when the other needs her. That connection makes the limited development of Kylie and Antonia’s relationship even more noticeable. King and Williams share only a few scenes, giving them little opportunity to establish the same sense of closeness. The moments meant to emphasize their bond consequently feel forced, as though the film expects the audience’s affection for Sally and Gillian to extend automatically to Sally’s daughters. It’s not that the younger sisters need to have an identical relationship; they just need enough time together to make the audience believe that they had a strong one.

The film leans heavily into CGI effects, which are bigger and brighter, but they also feel less convincing. Glowing spells and swirling smoke turn magic into a spectacle, losing some of the everyday intimacy that made the original charming. The quieter moments between the sisters hold more magic than the elaborate supernatural confrontations because their connection gives those moments emotional weight. Their shared looks, humor and small gestures of affection make the Owens family feel real, even when the magic around them does not.

“Practical Magic 2” reunites audiences with the humor, sisterhood and familiar traditions that made the original so worthwhile. “Practical Magic 2” is currently playing in theaters and is rated PG-13 for some violent content, suggestive material and brief strong language.