The School for Good and Evil

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.

That 2:30mins of my life I will never get back. I don't even know where to start, there wasn't a SINGLE good thing about the movie (if you can even call it that) . Putting famous actors in it didn't even help, if anything it made it worse because we were watching people we KNOW to be good at their work get turned into a joke with movies like this. You money Hungry producers don't even know how to make movies anymore. The plot was extremely rushed, there was NO character building, NO EXPLAINATIONS to Anything. Cheesiest, most predictable "Plot Twist" ever, not ONE likable character, Trash film .

Lifelong friends Agatha (Sofia Wylie) and Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) have been lifelong friends in their village of Gavaldon with Sophie Agatha's only friend due to unfounded rumors of Agatha and her mother being a witch. Sophie dreams of being a princess like in the fairy tale stories she's obsessed with, and after learning of the School for Good and Evil which trains the heroes and villains of the various stories that inspire mankind Sophie wishes to be enrolled in the school. Sophie initially plans to leave Gavaldon due to tensions with her family but is confronted by Agatha who tries to convince her otherwise. The two are pulled into the forest by a specter and taken by a bird to the School for Good and Evil but Agatha is dropped on the "good" side while Sophie is dropped on the "evil" against her protests she's actually good. Agatha reluctantly goes under the tutilidge of the Good school's dean Professor Dovey (Kerry Washington) while Sophie likewise is taught by Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron). Both Agatha and Sophie ask the School Master (Laurence Fishburne) to correct the mistake, but he says it's out of his power and only "true love's kiss" is powerful enough to change anything. Meanwhile, Agatha sees the spectre of the supposedly long dead brother of the School Master, Rafal (Kit Young), who has insidious plans involving Sophie. As Sophie and Agatha work their way through the school, divisions form between them with their mutual affections over Tedros (Jamie Flatters) the son of King Arthur.

The School for Good and Evil is an adaptation of the 2013 fairytale fantasy novel of the same name by author Soman Chainani which became the first in a series of the same name which at the time of this writing now consists of six books forming two trilogies (The School Years and Camelot Years). Plans for a film adaptation of the books began in 2011 a full two years before the first book saw publication but it wasn't until publication of the first book that Joe Roth of Roth Films acquired the film rights with the intention of making the film a tentpole YA fantasy franchise as Roth had experienced success with Snow White and the Huntsman, Oz the Great and Powerful, and especially Maleficent and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland all falling under that same extravagant family orientated fantasy fare that was quite popular in the early 2010s. The film languished in development hell despite Universal Pictures winning an auction for the rights with a seven-figure deal, with the box office underperformance of The Huntsman: Winter's War and Alice Through the Looking Glass also not helping the film's prospects. Eventually the rights landed at Netflix with a new creative team with the streamer interested in investing in new YA IPs to compete against the legacy brands of Wizarding World and Hunger Games. Comedy director Paul Feig was initially hesitant as he had no experience directing big budget fantasy films (Ghostbusters 2016 notwithstanding) but changed his mind after reading the script. Now after a 10+ year journey to watchable product, was it worth the wait? The movie does have the feel of something that should've come out about 10 years ago, but I will say that Paul Feig and David Magee do have fun with the formula.

The School for Good and Evil's biggest battle in terms of winning its audience will undeniably be in the sense of "deja view" as The School for Good and Evil does feel like a remix of various movies you've seen from blockbusters past, down to films like the two Maleficent and Alice films released by Disney that share producer Joe Roth of this film. There's also the more obvious comparison to be made with the Wizarding World/Harry Potter franchise with the setting of a magical school/academy. With that said that doesn't make the film bad, just familiar and the movie does at least seem aware of this aspect so it never takes itself overly seriously and allows for some decent humor in its approach to this well worn material. Much like other modern fantasy films based around fairy tale themes and iconography, The School for Good and Evil is very much a deconstruction of those themes and filters them through the lens of our times by making the story about polarization and "othering" and while that is a well-worn approach, I felt they did enough to make it engaging that I was never bored or thinking the film should "move on".

In terms of the acting, I think the actors do a good job of making the material engaging. Sofia Wylie does quite well in the role of Agatha and she does a good job of endearing us to her as a protagonist especially with her more reserved and down to earth personality contrasted against the extravagance of the Good School which leads to some humorous moments with her annoyance at various facets of the Good School's culture. Sophia Anne Caruso does okay in the role of Sophie but I think there's something about the way this character is written that doesn't make it feel quite as natural a fit as with Sofia and Agatha so I always felt Sophie's characterization was a little "off" in some way, I'm not quite sure how it could've been improved and given the nature of the character it's a challenging role to write and especially act but I don't think it quite sticks the landing in terms of performance. The movie also boasts a solid supporting cast with Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Kerry Washington, and Charlize Theron making up the various staff of the Schools and they're very entertaining in their performances. Kerry Washington in particular has a lot of fun playing a kind of tightly wound Fairy Godmother archetype and while Charlize Theron does recycle a little of her performance as Queen Ravenna from Snow White and the Huntsman, she's still very entertaining playing a character who loves evil and her scenes with Washington show some great comic friction. I also rather enjoyed Earl Cave's performance as Hort, the son of Captain Hook, and his performance and energy reminded me of the late great Rik Mayall. On a visual level the film looks very beautifully and handsomely produced with Academy Award nominated production designer of Gravity and Captain Marvel Andy Nicholson producing some beautifully decorated sets that are lovingly crafted. While the movie uses a ton of CGI as per the standard of this genre, Feig opted to use as much make-up and animatronics as possible so the movie manages to sidestep the "rubbery" sheen look of some of these films fall into. I particularly liked the design of the wolf/human guards who supposedly were (in part anyway) animatronic.

The School for Good and Evil falls in line with similar YA fantasy fare, but it's well made and doesn't play itself too seriously and has fun with its world and performances. It's pretty obvious that Netflix wants this to be a franchise (down to an ending stinger) and given the series of books and production commitment it probably will be. I can't speak to its faithfulness to the source material as I've not read the books, but if you have a soft spot for things like The 10th Kingdom or the Maleficent movies you'll probably enjoy this.

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.

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.