The School for Good and Evil is the Paul Feig-directed adaptation of Soman Chainani's popular fantasy books.
At first glance, the premise seems to be following in the footsteps of the Harry Potter series. But look closer, and The School for Good and Evil does have an identity all of its own.
The story is set in an institution where children are trained how to become Hero or Villain in the fairy tales we all know and love.
The main focus is on the characters of Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie). Although they are best friends, the former seems destined to visit the School for Good, while Agatha would be more suited to the School for Evil.
However, part of the fun is that the movie plays with conceptions of good and evil and by a simple twist of fate, the roles are reversed and Agatha is in it for the good while Sophie is the one who breaks bad.
Both actresses have a lot of fun with their roles, because they both are allowed to play against type.
There are also nice supporting roles for Charlize Theron (as The evil Lady Lesso), Kerry Washington (as the good Professor Dovey), Michelle Yeoh (as Lady Anemone) and Laurence Fishburne (as School Master).
Almost par for the course in movies like these, but there is a larger plot at play, which threatens the existence of the whole school.
Director Paul Feig previously directed comedies such as Bridesmaids and The Heat and other mainstream films such as A Simple Favor and the all-female version of Ghostbusters.
The School for Good and Evil gives him the chance to go all out: costumes, production design, music, there is a lot of everything, and sometimes all at once.
The movie is also filled with special effects that sometimes stand in the way of the character arcs.
Still, it’s an ambitious piece of work, which would have been worthy of a theatrical release.
With a running time of almost two and a half hours, The School for Good and Evil errs on the long side. But I think this will be a hit for Netflix, because for fans of the books there of is plenty to enjoy.
I understand why most film critics do not post a rating at the top of their review but what I don't understand is why after reading a review, lengthy such as yours, no rating out of 5 or 10 is posted.
Perhaps you would enlighten me as to why you and other critics do that,