L'École du bien et du mal

I never read the books so I can't tell how accurate the adaption is. This Netflix production is definitely not the best but also not the worst fantasy movie. It's like a typical Nickelodeon/Disney channel production (with better effects and costumes) in my feeling and I think it will find it's audience.

I was entertained by it and I guess it's fine for watching one time. It has a nice cast and costumes. The CGI could have been better but is fine compared to other movies on Disney channel level.

The story and the characters are pretty mediocre and for my taste, they are relying too hard on clichés. On the other hand I think that some people will love it especially for this. It definitely falls into the category guilty pleasure.

So if you don't expect much and like cheesy fantasy movies for children/teenager, this movie could be something for you.

If you are not the target audience or don't like these kind of movies, stay away from it. You can't compare it to movies like Harry Potter, Panem and Maze Runner. But to be fair, I don't think that the movie ever intended to be compared with them.

After an esteemed user of an esteemed community immediately threw in the towel, I had my doubts about the film. When I saw that the running time was 148 minutes, I was even more skeptical. Would I be able to sit through it? But I got curious and just started the movie, even though I actually wanted to go to bed. Well, what can I say? I easily made it to the end and in the end I didn't even think the movie was that long. Just now, as I was writing these lines here, I read the fresh review from my favorite movie site and was horrified.... by myself. Can it be that I like such a cheesy movie with partly bad effects? Am I abnormal? Even the ratings on IMDB say it's a bad movie. Well, I see it a bit different. But let's start from the beginning.

Yes, "The School for Good and Evil" is tremendously cheesy and full of clichés. Yes, the film is perhaps a touch too unserious. Yes, the film steals mercilessly from well-known films of the genre, especially a lot from Harry Potter. Yes, the supporting characters are superficial and sometimes annoying. Yes, the effects are sometimes bad and cheap. And yet ... I really like the movie. Now I'm sure everyone thinks I'm crazy. First I write how bad everything is and then I say that I like it. But ... why? The answer is short, concise and banal: Emotions and feelings!

Yes, I shouldn't really like the film because of the bad aspects. But who knows me, knows: Emotions and feelings are in films and series for me sometimes the most important. Yes, but where do these emotions come from? Are they hiding between all the kitsch, the stolen and the superficial and the bad effects? The answer is: No. They are not hiding at all. The emotions come straight from the center of the film: the two main actresses and their characters.

Sofia Wylie embodies Agatha, a brash but also deeply human and sympathetic teenage girl. She brings across Agatha's feelings and emotions in such a wonderful way that Agatha immediately grows on me. Cliché or not, I like her a lot and it carries me through half the film.

The same goes for Sophia Anne Caruso, who embodies Sophie. She is a sweet and kind girl who has the courage to stand up for her best friend Agatha and defend her. The friendship between Agatha and Sophie is strong and convincing. Sophie, however, wants to get away from the place where they live. She doesn't feel comfortable there, where everyone else despises her and Agatha and has only scorn and ridicule for them. So she is drawn into the magical world of the school of good and evil. Agatha, however, does not want to lose her and let her go, so she is pulled into this world with her. Agatha ends up in the good school and Sophie in the evil school. The reasons are mystical and fateful. The friendship of both is put to the test and there are forces that manipulate them both without them knowing anything about it.

Agatha and Sophie are the embodiment of beautiful emotions for me. This pulled me in so much that I was rooting for them until the end and even couldn't suppress a tear at the end. Friendship, trust, bonding and commitment to friendship are what it's really all about. The rest of the film is incidental.

The emotional depth of the story is further supported by the beautiful background music, which I really liked.

Aesthetically, I also find the film really successful and beautiful. The scenery is beautiful, I like the setting as well, and the costumes and sets are really great to look at.

All in all, the film was really worth it for me, and I really wouldn't have expected that after FlyingKerbecs' words. Definitely a film I would like to see again. Thus, I give the film a recommendation and award it

8/10 points - Medium rewatch value.

Some of these reviews apparently expected this to be a mix of The Godfather and Avengers: Infinity War. Look, it's fine. If you're walking into this looking for some Oscar-worthy performances, you should just turn around. It's a YA interpretation on film. That's it.

There's some cute stuff. Some fun stuff. Some cringe stuff. Which pretty much is everything YA anyway. The biggest fault is the run time. Two and a half hours is a lot to commit to this. But to its credit, it doesn't really drag.

I do agree with one reviewer that it may have been better off as a show than a lengthy movie. But let's just take this for what it is - a studio filler movie for some actors and producers to honor their contracts. Once you get that in your mind, it's easy to enjoy this movie.

I'd give this a 6.5 if it was an option, but it's not, and I'm not going to round up.

Like always, I went in without watching any trailers or any knowledge about the source material.

In the beginning, the movie starts with the same vibe as other generic fantasy movies out there. As you progress into the story, you feel that the movie is a try-hard Harry Potter like. You're not wrong. It is. It's Harry Potter if there were only 2 houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Gryffindor (Good) has all the good qualities and quite obviously Slytherin (Evil) is all bad things possible.

For 70% of the movie, things remain pretty black and white. This is really infuriating for me because I hate such movies. Hunger Games, Divergent, depict an unnatural society where humans are so easily divided based on some function or trait. Harry Potter does the same as well. This movie repeats it too. Except here, and this is after 70% of the movie, the movie shows a tiny bit of uniqueness in the form of Agatha. I love that her character is exactly like the voice of the people watching this movie. The voice of reason. She goes around pointing almost all the same things I pointed that it's Not. As. Easy. As. That. Yes, I know other movies do that too but in those movies the protagonist is supported by a mentor character who shows them "the truth". Here, it's all Agatha. It's just her common sense. There's no Dumbledore here who comes and tells her the grand plan. In a way, Agatha feels like us. If we got into a school like that, we would act exactly like that! Like seriously, you're giving me an F for not smiling good?? I love her character.

That's the thing that I like the most about this movie. The rest of movie after this is also interesting because it tries to break from the pattern. In the form of Agatha of course. I felt the self-writing book was also a very nice plot and some very interesting story lines can emerge from that alone.

The movie should target the right audience for this to get good results. It isn't a movie for most adults. Maybe the next part would be better?

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.