CERT: 12 / PLATFORMS: NETFLIX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
It has been a long time since Harry Potter hasn’t it? Ever since the lightning-scarred boy wizard conquered the world across the 2000s, we have seen countless other (usually book adapted) young adult fantasy strive to conjure up the same box office magic.
Some have found their own mammoth success (regardless of quality) like Twilight and The Hunger Games, others have just felt second tier (The Maze Runner and Divergent series), and others have been disastrous failures (Mortal Instruments). Hell, even the wider Wizarding World has struggled (hello there The Secrets of Dumbledore). Now Netflix is attempting to get some stuff going with their adaptation of Soman Chainani’s bestseller. Does it? Well, let’s just say that ending sequel tease is hopeful to say the least.
The film sees two young women Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie) who are the best of friends, isolated from their community of Gavaldon, and they only have each other. But when one aspires for a life greater than she has, and makes a wish, they find themselves transported to a fantastical world and the (don’t call me Hogwarts) School For Good and Evil, divided into two camps – The Evers and The Nevers. Only problem is Sophie and Agatha have been separated and Sophie in particular does not think she belongs in the school she has been placed in.
Bafflingly cut and released as a feature film instead go a TV series/episodic format, which would have better suited its concept and narrative, The School For Good and Evil is a bit of a hodgepodge. Like Ghostbusters or Last Christmas, watching this makes you yearn for Paul Feig’s higher calibre work (Spy, The Heat and A Simple Favour).
In fact, this one starts off really really badly, feeling like a tooth grindingly flat little theatre production of Potter and ye olde fantasy cliche, thankfully finding more of a footing after the first hour with a handful of more poignant notes, but its thin line between evil and good themes do race around in a story that has more and more chucked into it, and much to its overall detriment.
Packed with Gen Z needle drops (some fine, some awkward) and modern colloquial sass to appeal to the kids, some may have fun but anyone of any age will have seen far better, and for all its attempts, far bigger fare than this. Which, for all the effects and action, just feels rather wooden and stilted.
Once again Charlize Theron finds herself in a film she far outclasses, while Sofia Wylie and Sophia Anne Caruso’s great efforts go some way in providing heart but things just eventually spiral out of control. While a plethora of other bigger name stars are utterly wasted in disposable roles.
The School For Good and Evil is an overlong and over-packed uneasy mash-up of Harry Potter’s Wizarding World and The Descendants which starts off threatening to be nigh on unwatchable, never finds its groove enough to be magical, and in the end just emerges as a mess.
