The SGE Movie Was Disappointing…

So, the School for Good and Evil’s movie adaptation was finally released. I’m bitter.

Warning: Some Spoilers And Angry Ranting Ahead

I was highly disappointed by this, to say the least. I don’t really know what I expected from it, but at least some semblance of… oh I don’t know, a plot that made sense to the book would’ve been nice? In the case of live action remakes in general, they’re not typically done well. At all (cough The Last Airbender cough). But, since I’d heard the author was involved with the making of this, I at least had… some expectations? Some standards, that it would vaguely resemble the book? I know there are time constraints, so of course every scene from the book can’t make it in, but completely changing plot points and omitting important scenes ruined the characters, and the movie. Fair warning, this is mostly based on my point of view as someone who has read the books, and is now watching the movie.

The Plot was way too rushed.

This likely would’ve been much better as a TV series, when they had more time to include everything. One important part of Agatha in the first book, was the character growth which I loved. In the movie. where was it? One of the most important scenes from the book in terms of Agatha realizing she just needed confidence to be beautiful, was the part with the fairy godmother. But! Not only was that scene skipped, nothing similar to it (at least that I remember) even happened in the movie?! WHAT?! I looked more into this later, and found that it was a deleted scene but… why would they delete that? It felt like the movie repeatedly sacrificed its characters in favor of trying to stuff it with plot. Agatha started off insecure in the beginning, and by the end, the plot point was kind of just. Ignored? Also the ending kind of made no sense, but we’ll get to that later.

In the entire plot point of the trial by tale, it barely was similar to the book. The very essence of what it was, was completely changed. It’s supposed to be a competition with the best Evers and the best Nevers, not a test to prove that Sophie was good. I can sort of see why they changed it?? But I really wish they hadn’t because it was a really action packed portion of the book. Another thing was when Tedros was instantaneously nice to Sophie, which I can also kind of understand why they rushed through that (again, series? to avoid having to put every plot point on x2 speed) but it ruined the character dynamic. ALSO WHY WAS LADY LESSO LITERALLY EVERYBODY. She had Evelyn’s “school master’s true love” plotline, she ran the doom room, she taught every class… I mean. She multitasks! gj! But also. just. why… They essentially merged a bunch of different characters into one, and if the movies are going to be continued (judging by the cliffhanger ending, that’s most likely the case) I don’t see how they could make that work without completely destroying the books.

NOT TO MENTION THE CLIMAX/ENDING. This part just made. No sense. How could Agatha, someone whose literally had no training with a sword, somehow defeat the school master where Tedros, someone who has literally been training his whole life, fails? Also! Sophie in the books never accepted in the kiss, and instead sacrifices herself for Agatha (which did also happen in the movie), and Agatha kisses her, giving them a “true loves kiss”. At this point in the book, they’re taken back to Gavaldon, and Tedros is left alone. This sets up the perfect opportunity for Tedros to truly resent Sophie for “stealing” Agatha. In the movies, Sophie literally tells Agatha to stay with Tedros. While the fact that Agatha did choose Sophie could lead to resentment, it just. Makes less sense in a way for Tedros to hate her since it was more clearly shown to be Agatha’s choice, and Sophie was shown being more selfless.

Overall, I’m definitely biased because I’m comparing it so closely to the books. Objectively, I really don’t know if it can be considered a good movie. I despised it, 100%, but I feel like if I tried not to compare it to the books, it could’ve been better? My sister and I both watched it (and texted our comments throughout since she’s off in college) and neither of us really liked it?? But also we’ve both read the books several times and are definitely biased against the movie because of it. ALSO THEY DID THE CHANGE BOOK COVER TO LIVE ACTION COVER ONCE AN ADAPTATION IS MADE THING AGAIN AND I HATE IT.

Have you watched this movie yet? Thoughts? Is it a me thing, or do you agree? Let’s chat in the comments!

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