It's always a massive risk to reboot a beloved film.
Total Recall, Robocop and Point Break are recent examples of redone films that just didn't resonate with audiences. However, some reboots find success. The new Jumanji films were highly enjoyable and who didn't love the Ocean's franchise led by Clooney and co?
The Craft: Legacy isn't an immediate classic, but it's also far from a dud.
Occupying the space where reboot and delayed sequel cross over in the Venn diagram, The Craft: Legacy follows a similar plot structure to the 1996 film from which it was derived.
Checking the IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes ratings of the film would have you believe that it's a steaming garbage pile akin to its release year, but the new film is actually pretty fun. While it doesn't have the spark, scares or cultural impact of The Craft, writer-director Zoe-Lister Jones' take on teen witchcraft has a lot of good moments and a number of positives.
Legacy is ever more feminist than its predecessor - which has probably contributed to some of the poor ratings floating about on the internet - and comes with a hefty dose of social awareness.
Our protagonist, Lily (Cailee Spaeny, Bad Times at the El Royale), arrives in a new city to move into her mum's boyfriend's house. In a moment she goes from an only child with one parent, to having three soon-to-be stepbrothers and a stepfather. She soon finds a trio of girls who become her best friends and 'coven', and they begin practising witchcraft, both for fun and to make the world around them less intolerant.
The film hones in on the parts of adolescence that are difficult to deal with, and one of the earliest scenes in the film will have girls squirming in their seats with secondhand embarrassment and mortification.
Legacy doesn't go overboard with the witchy effects - a trap it could've easily fallen into given the relative ease with which CGI makes the impossible possible - but does bring a lot of sparkle to the proceedings (a decidedly different take than the 1996 version). The film could benefit from an extra 15 minutes of character-building, but overall, it's a fun time and something to be watched with the girlsquad.
