The School for Good and Evil: Film Review
I really wanted to like The School for Good and Evil because I’m a big fan of Paul Feig, the star-studded cast and the fabulous outfits, but I’m afraid to say it’s not very good.
The film, based on the YA fantasy novel by Soman Chainani, tells the story of best friends Sophie (Sophia Ann Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie). In their home of Gavaldon, Sophie is a beautiful girl destined to be a princess while Agatha is rumoured to be a witch. However, when they are kidnapped and taken to the School for Good and Evil, Sophie is dumped in Evil and Agatha is placed in Good, putting their friendship to the test.
The biggest problem with this movie is that it feels so derivative of many other fantasy films. By its very nature, it is so easy to compare it to Harry Potter – the School for Good literally looks like Hogwarts and the students in the School for Evil are basically all Slytherins. You’ll also recognise the training sessions where they learn to hone their powers, the scary woodlands and the gathering of both schools in a large hall.
The Harry Potter inspiration is very obvious, but this fantasy also made me think of other projects – the Disney Channel movie Descendants, about the children of villains (mostly thanks to Sophie’s evil transformation); the musical Wicked, as its a story about friends divided between good and evil; and even Star Wars thanks to colourful swords that look like lightsabers. There is also a huge dollop of Bridgerton in there thanks to the costumes and sets in the School for Good.
Setting the lack of originality aside, there are still other issues. There is supposed to be a rivalry between both schools but it feels fake and contrived, the story’s main villain Rafal (Kit Young) is rather weak so the stakes don’t feel very high and the ending is resolved far too easily. I know there is a lot of world-building required but the movie is very long (2 hours 27 minutes), the CGI is questionable at times, and it’s a case of style over substance because there is no depth to it at all.
I have to admit though, I did love watching it on a purely shallow level. The costumes are gorgeous – I particularly loved Charlize Theron‘s three-piece suit – and the production design is top-notch too. I also enjoyed some other aspects – it’s a lot of fun when Sophie leans into her evil side and goes full witch; a nighttime chase with a pumpkin-headed scarecrow was suitably creepy, and I liked the soundtrack and the girl power theme.
Theron is perfectly camp and fabulous as Lady Lesso, the head of the School for Evil, and Laurence Fishburne is the wise School Master, but Kerry Washington is quite dull as the pristine and polished Professor Dovey of the School for Good. None of them is in it anywhere near enough but at least they’re not totally wasted like Michelle Yeoh as a teacher in Good. She has nothing to do! I also wanted Wylie’s character to have more substance beyond trying to convince Sophie she’s good and I hope this improves next time (the book franchise contains six novels).
The School for Good and Evil is a real disappointment and not the best foundation for a new YA franchise.
On Netflix from Wednesday 19th October