The School for Good and Evil
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): October 19, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
30
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
6
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 11, 2023
Theron and Washington vamp this monstrosity up and almost never let on that they know this project didn’t really work out. That sets an example for the many younger players in the cast, who do their best to play more than this scene’s stunning costume. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyOct 19, 2022
School is endlessly talky, with dialogue that has the consistency of melted licorice (red or black, your choice). The one thing to be said for Theodore Shapiro’s muscularly egregious score is that the music makes it marginally easier to miss what the characters are saying. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireOct 19, 2022
All of these potentially effective elements—as well as a stellar cast that includes Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, and Michelle Yeoh—get swallowed up by the overwhelming reliance on CGI-infused action sequences. They’re both empty and endless, and too often leave you wondering what’s going on and why we should bother. Read full review
35
Paste MagazineKathy Michelle ChacónOct 21, 2022
The School for Good and Evil is juvenile, over-the-top and campy in all the worst ways. It’s too busy trying to combine TikTok fashion with Top 40 music and popular children’s fantasy films to create any visual, musical or narrative distinction for itself. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayOct 21, 2022
The teen-targeted fantasy-romance The School for Good and Evil is an exhaustingly long, overstuffed movie that probably would’ve worked better as a TV series. Read full review
30
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 20, 2022
Despite a few touching scenes in which Sophie and Agatha reassert their bond amidst handsome suiters and devious spells, Good And Evil ends up feeling both too busy and too underdeveloped to let their relationship blossom. There’s no happily ever after awaiting audiences at the film’s end. Read full review
30
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 19, 2022
Sure, it’s a “Harry Potter” rip-off, but had Feig taken the time to let the film breathe, it might have stood on its own. Unlike Hogwarts, where fresh surprises lay waiting around every corner, this school seems to exist in concept only — and not a particularly good one at that. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 29, 2022
If we’re reaching for something, anything nice to say here – and we absolutely are – Theron’s black trouser suit and trench coat is a strong look. Read full review
20
EmpireJohn NugentOct 19, 2022
An absolute shambles of a fantasy folly. Overlong, undercooked, and clogged with enough clichés that even its teen target audience will feel disrespected. Read full review
20
The GuardianCharles BramescoOct 19, 2022
As this narrative advances out of the YA-industrial complex and into the harsher environment of general scrutiny, however, a whole curriculum’s worth of faults become visible to an audience not so readily pandered to, who want for more than worn-out teen-lit tropes to fill some inner content maw. Read full review
10
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 19, 2022
This is a uniquely tiresome slog — madly over-plotted, thuddingly derivative, insanely overlong and slathered in a big symphonic score that strives to infuse momentum into a saga with minimal emotional stakes. Read full review
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