The School for Good and Evil

I enjoyed watching this movie and it was good overall. The scenery was beautiful,despite some lacking CGI like in the case of the wolf heads. I read this series of books about 6-7 years ago so I don't exactly remember the plot/essence of those, so I can't comment on the accuracy of this adaptation. The acting, especially on the part of sophie anne caruso, was pretty poorly done. To be fair, the writing did not do her character any justice either but the acting made the character overall bad. I thought sofia wylie did an excellent job, as well as charlize theron, kerry washington, and Michelle yeoh. The character of tedros was also poorly written and acted, and honestly the relationship betweeen tedros and sophie was not written or developed well in the movie. Overall this movie was just average, not terrible or anything, but I will not be rewatching ever. If the story is interesting to you, I would recommend reading the book series, as the author has quite a few other books in this series written.

Like always, I went in without watching any trailers or any knowledge about the source material.

In the beginning, the movie starts with the same vibe as other generic fantasy movies out there. As you progress into the story, you feel that the movie is a try-hard Harry Potter like. You're not wrong. It is. It's Harry Potter if there were only 2 houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Gryffindor (Good) has all the good qualities and quite obviously Slytherin (Evil) is all bad things possible.

For 70% of the movie, things remain pretty black and white. This is really infuriating for me because I hate such movies. Hunger Games, Divergent, depict an unnatural society where humans are so easily divided based on some function or trait. Harry Potter does the same as well. This movie repeats it too. Except here, and this is after 70% of the movie, the movie shows a tiny bit of uniqueness in the form of Agatha. I love that her character is exactly like the voice of the people watching this movie. The voice of reason. She goes around pointing almost all the same things I pointed that it's Not. As. Easy. As. That. Yes, I know other movies do that too but in those movies the protagonist is supported by a mentor character who shows them "the truth". Here, it's all Agatha. It's just her common sense. There's no Dumbledore here who comes and tells her the grand plan. In a way, Agatha feels like us. If we got into a school like that, we would act exactly like that! Like seriously, you're giving me an F for not smiling good?? I love her character.

That's the thing that I like the most about this movie. The rest of movie after this is also interesting because it tries to break from the pattern. In the form of Agatha of course. I felt the self-writing book was also a very nice plot and some very interesting story lines can emerge from that alone.

The movie should target the right audience for this to get good results. It isn't a movie for most adults. Maybe the next part would be better?

Sophia Anne Caruso as Sophie & Sofia Wylie as Agatha did an excellent job in their roles as they were written.

This film did not lack acting talent. Where it went a miss is either a weakly written two dimensional flat script or bad directing in the ability to visually move a story plot along at the right pace.

The story premise was interesting and the set designs were done with excellent attention to details.(Although a bit of a Harry Potterish look in some places.)

All in all its worth a look. Don't expect a real gold coin and just enjoy the chocolate under the gold foil.

Oh and if you cast Rachel Bloom in something and just have as part of the set it should be considered a crime and you should be punished. This lost you a star off the rating.

I've never read the books this was based on so I cannot comment if it's faithful or accurate.. I tuned in because I saw Cate, Charlize, and Laurence in the casting. It wasn't a masterpiece but it did deliver a good light hearted fantasy story.

The overall vibe of the movie reminded me of these children's books I've read as a kid with bright colorful pictures that tell a straightforward adventure story with a simple message at the end. It's predictable and no gritty plot twists which might be a downside for some but I wasn't expecting that to begin with. It's just light and fun, perhaps also touching in some scenes.

I love that it's sharp and saturated and not dull like what we normally get currently, especially during night scenes. Here you can clearly see everything. They really nailed the aesthetic of fairytale. The costumes as well!

The CGI and action sequences are doable enough. The music choices hit and miss. As for the actors, I like them enough. Charlize and Kerry were such fun contrasts of each other. Laurence Sophia Anne Caruso I think really nailed her character. She has this very Disney princess vibe to her even her voice. Sofia Wylie also did great but I can't quite see her as a gloomy character she's supposed to be portraying?

Overall I find it quite campy to the point of cheesy drama but I liked it anyway coz to me it fits the the vibe and theme of the story. It's giving similar to Enchanted or Ella Enchanted. I also liked that the focus was their friendship. I would've rated this movie higher if they made it as a series to really flesh out the characters of more characters... but alas.

Fun to watch with my older kids, never really boring. Some cheesy moments but nothing in comparison to how cheesy and unbearable Descendants is so if you have to pick one go with THIS one. Fantastic art direction and costuming also really brings the whole vibe of the story together. And having some famous older actors we love was a very nice touch too and they seem to be having fun in their roles in this. The only issue I had is that this is a fairy tale theme not in the real world yet one of the main characters says "Oh my God" about 24 times in a 3 min span like as typical teenager when she's freaking out over her friend being hurt near the end. I don't know if this was a misstep, clearly the actress was adlibbing and that is what she would have said in real life, but it's kind of hilarious because you're definitely taken out of the storybook fairy tale land here. Not a complaint, it's just really funny when they're literally in medieval fairy gowns and she's like "oh my god, like oh my god, like, oh my god.." had me and my kids cracking up. But yeah, we loved it honestly.