Hocus Pocus 2 is a bad movie. It’s an unfocused, uninspired, and boring film. That leaves people asking why they wasted an hour and half of their lives watching it; I know I did. 

The movie is about as fun as watching paint dry. None of the actors, besides the Sanderson Sisters, work well with each other. None of them bounce off each other’s energy, because there is no energy to begin with. Everyone looks bored, unenthusiastic, and just bearing through it to collect their Disney paycheck. It’s not fun to watch actors scramble through their lines like they got the script 30 seconds before shooting. 

The protagonist, with a blank piece of wood as a personality, is Becca. Becca is a teenage girl who loves witches and her friends, and that is it. Her friends are nothing characters whose sole purposes in life are to lift the main girl up, at the cost of a lack of their own interests and personalities. The original movie gave viewers a main protagonist worth the run time, Max. A boy who has a meaningful arc throughout the movie, and who grows to be a better person than he was at the start. Becca doesn’t learn or grow, and the only thing resembling a meaningful arc for her character comes out of nowhere in the last 20 minutes of the movie. 

The original Hocus Pocus didn’t take itself too seriously. It was fun, comical, and decent, especially in its characters. Sure it had its flaws, but the movie doesn’t have to impress the audience with serious and thought-provoking scenes. It is trying to make people laugh and enjoy the goofiness of it which it exceedingly does. The sequel tries to emulate that but fails and hits every branch on the way down. The sequel tries to be a sequel to the original, but also tries to be its own thing. It tries to be a funny comedy, but it also tries to be serious. So, it feels unfocused trying to be a little bit of everything and nothing all at once. 

But when everything is said and done, who was this movie made for? The kids who grew up enjoying the original are older adults now, many of whom cannot find the time for a movie that has so little to offer.  And as for the new generation of kids, are they really going to care enough to watch it? A soft reboot of a not-so-popular movie from 30 years ago? In short, stick to the original Hocus Pocus and don’t waste time with this boring, wretched, wanna-be Hocus Pocus.