Item: The School For Good And Evil
Rating: 4
Author: Alex Maidy

Plot: Best friends Sophie and Agatha are kidnapped and taken to the titular School for Good and Evil. After their fortunes are reversed, the duo try to figure out a way to return home. In doing so, their friendship is put to the test.

Review: Netflix tends to market the hell out of its feature film projects. When a movie drops on the streaming network with minimal exposure in the form of TV spots or trailers and in the middle of a week without advance screening for critics, it tends to bode poorly for the finished product. Debuting today is the epic fantasy The School for Good and Evil, based on the best-selling novel series of the same name. Directed by Paul Feig (Ghostbusters, Bridesmaids) and featuring a massive cast of stars like Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Michelle Yeoh, Cate Blanchett, Laurence Fishburne, and more, The School for Good and Evil is a colossal misfire the likes we have not seen in years. Running at two-and-a-half hours with a budget that looks like it cost half as much as Netflix invested in it, this fantasy had the potential to be Netflix’s Harry Potter but ends up closer to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.

Following the plot of the novel very closely, The School for Good and Evil follows Sophie (Sophie Ann Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie), two girls from a small village. Sophie lives a Cinderella-like existence while Agatha is branded a witch. When they learn of the titular school, Sophie writes a letter to attend and both girls are swept away to the fantastical Hogwarts-esque castle where they are dropped in the opposite sides they expected. Sophie becomes a student of Evil under the tutelage of Lady Lesso (Charlize Theron) while Agatha is enrolled as Good under Professor Lovey (Kerry Washington). The School Master (Laurence Fishburne), very much a Dumbledore-like leader, sits back as the girls must learn to fit in with their new surroundings. They quickly learn that the school serves as the location where all heroes and villains are educated before their exploits are chronicled by the Storian (Cate Blanchett). Agatha and Sophie work to find a way out of the school which may only happen if they can prove they are on the wrong side.

What follows is very similar to the early Harry Potter novels and films as we meet the various instructors at the school as well as the students who are offspring of familiar characters like Prince Charming, King Arthur, and Captain Hook. Each of the characters speaks as a 21st-century teen dropped into a medieval setting in stilted dialogue that varies from disingenuous to downright wooden. Over the two-and-a-half hour film, screenwriters David Magee and author Soman Chainani cram in all of the subplots and events from the novel that repeat the same formula of finding characters facing a challenge, barely surviving, learning a plot twist, and repeating. Over and over again, The School for Good and Evil feels like two or three Harry Potter films crammed into a single feature. I regularly found myself wondering why this was made into a movie instead of a series that could have padded the material out for at least six episodes and not felt nearly as rushed as this film does.

The School for Good and Evil novel series consists of five books which made this project a potentially lucrative investment for Netflix and explains the presence of so many A-list talents. Shockingly, Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington appear to be having some fun in their roles in which they chew the scenery with abandon. Even the two leads, Caruso and Wylie, have moments where they shine. While Caruso gets to play a little more with her character of Sophie, Wylie has the meatier and more dramatic character with Agatha serving as the crux of this story. The supporting cast also does the best they can with the material, but the problem is that no one feels like they are on the same page with the tone of the story. Pete Serafinowicz plays the groundskeeper/gnome professor, Yuba, as a completely over-the-top character and generates a lot of laughs which makes it difficult to take him seriously when the plot turns sinister. There are times when I began to feel there was potential that this story could find some momentum before it derails itself with another extended side quest.

Paul Feig has not directed a film of this scale before but has shown some proficiency with helming action in movies like Spy and special effects in films like Ghostbusters. The School for Good and Evil regularly feels like it invested the special effects budget in a few key areas like landscapes and grand magic spells which look like swarms of insects, smoke, and sparkles, while other significantly FX-heavy characters and set pieces look unfinished and mediocre at best. The story also needed to either be streamlined and pared down to a leaner story with fewer subplots or expanded into a series to accommodate the world-building needed to allow the audience to invest in the narrative. By the time the film reaches its climactic twist, it feels telegraphed and unearned. There is so much going on in this story and none of it carries the magic needed to make it feel worth investing in, but that could also be because the filmmakers could not decide if this story should be serious or funny and it fails to be either.

The School for Good and Evil is a massive dud that will please no one but the most die-hard fans of the novels. There are many moments that show sparks of potential for what it could have been if Netflix had forced Paul Feig into editing this down to something more manageable. Maybe the teen audiences that appreciate the books will find something in this adaptation that I did not, but I am hesitant to think that anyone aside from them will be willing to invest their time or attention into such an unbalanced production. The School for Good and Evil itself looks like it has chosen which side it will align with and it definitely is not Good.