Jack Black and Cate Blanchette are awesome in this. Funny when they have to be, dead serious when it is needed, with great chemistry between them... If these two were the main characters of this movie, it would probably be great. Sadly, they're not. The main character is played by Owen Vaccaro, a kid I hope I'll never hear of again. Maybe I'm unjustly harsh here, but his performance in this movie was simply awful, so forced, so exaggerated that it only brought laughter where it was supposed to bring seriousness and cringe where it was supposed to bring fun. The kid who played Vaccaro's character's bully was a much better actor - at least, he could become likable when he needed to be liked. Vaccaro's performance dragged everything down, and, apart from Black and Blanchette, nothing in this movie is that good to begin with.
First, OK, it's visually nice, but some of the CGI is really sub par. Plus, it just reeks of political correctness - I'm mentioning this when I'm talking about the visual side of the movie, because, sadly, the abundance of Asian and black kids in the main character's school serves only a decorative purpose - they don't have memorable lines (if they even have lines at all, which I've forgotten already, and I saw the movie less than an hour ago), they don't matter, they're just there - in an American school in 1955, only a year after the racial segregation in American schools was declared unconstitutional. Am I supposed to believe that kids of color were suddenly so well received? And if they were, why were they demoted to mere set decoration in the movie? Purely visually, that didn't make sense - it made the movie look as if it were set in the 80s or the 90s. All in all, while colourful and easy on the eye, the movie didn't really look as if it were set in the 50s.
Second, the writing is Razzie worthy. Eric Kripke, known for "Supernatural", did everything he could to make the story so brutally inconsistent that one can't help but wonder what it was supposed to be. It's not just a supernatural story, it's also a school drama - a school drama where it's easier to sympathize with the bully, because he's just more likable and easier to understand. The main character is irredeemably stupid, despite the filmmakers' efforts to make him look smart - which is the only reason the bully resorted to hitting him. (By the way, the main character attacked first, he just did it sloppy.) Seriously, put yourself in the bully's shoes. If someone risked your life using force you don't understand, would you want to be friends with them? Would you want them near you? I wouldn't.
Then there is the problem with the magic in this story - while nice to look at, it really makes no logical sense. How is it that in some scenes Jack Black's Jonathan is incredibly powerful, and in others he isn't? How is it that Owen Vaccaro's Lewis suddenly loses his magic powers only to just gain them back with no explanation whatsoever when the plot needs them? How is it that Cate Blanchette's Florence suddenly regains her long lost powers just when the plot needs them? (OK, that has some explanation, but it's not good enough.) This is just deus ex machina in its purest form.
Then, of course, there's the problem with the movie's uneven tone. Dead serious scenes revealing dark secret of certain characters' past are followed by poop jokes. Literally. In one scene Florence cries about the death of her daughter, in the next she utters one liners while gleefully killing living dolls with her umbrella. In the climax Lewis literally kills two people with magic, and just a few minutes later he is cheerily pranking his classmates. And so on. The makers of this movie just couldn't find the balance between horror and comedy - the comedy is way too light, and the horror, while not that scary, is way too violent and way too serious to not leave a mark on the characters, especially on Lewis. Lewis killed two people and then went to school to prank ten year old kids with magic. I mean... How? Is he a psychopath or something?
Also, the school was just horrible. What gym teacher would allow a student with a broken leg and a student with a broken arm to play basketball in class? I know this was supposed to signify that kids in that school would rather take a cripple in their team than Lewis, but it was just absurd. It was less believable than the magic in the movie.
All in all, the movie did not give me what I wanted from it. Sorry.
First, OK, it's visually nice, but some of the CGI is really sub par. Plus, it just reeks of political correctness - I'm mentioning this when I'm talking about the visual side of the movie, because, sadly, the abundance of Asian and black kids in the main character's school serves only a decorative purpose - they don't have memorable lines (if they even have lines at all, which I've forgotten already, and I saw the movie less than an hour ago), they don't matter, they're just there - in an American school in 1955, only a year after the racial segregation in American schools was declared unconstitutional. Am I supposed to believe that kids of color were suddenly so well received? And if they were, why were they demoted to mere set decoration in the movie? Purely visually, that didn't make sense - it made the movie look as if it were set in the 80s or the 90s. All in all, while colourful and easy on the eye, the movie didn't really look as if it were set in the 50s.
Second, the writing is Razzie worthy. Eric Kripke, known for "Supernatural", did everything he could to make the story so brutally inconsistent that one can't help but wonder what it was supposed to be. It's not just a supernatural story, it's also a school drama - a school drama where it's easier to sympathize with the bully, because he's just more likable and easier to understand. The main character is irredeemably stupid, despite the filmmakers' efforts to make him look smart - which is the only reason the bully resorted to hitting him. (By the way, the main character attacked first, he just did it sloppy.) Seriously, put yourself in the bully's shoes. If someone risked your life using force you don't understand, would you want to be friends with them? Would you want them near you? I wouldn't.
Then there is the problem with the magic in this story - while nice to look at, it really makes no logical sense. How is it that in some scenes Jack Black's Jonathan is incredibly powerful, and in others he isn't? How is it that Owen Vaccaro's Lewis suddenly loses his magic powers only to just gain them back with no explanation whatsoever when the plot needs them? How is it that Cate Blanchette's Florence suddenly regains her long lost powers just when the plot needs them? (OK, that has some explanation, but it's not good enough.) This is just deus ex machina in its purest form.
Then, of course, there's the problem with the movie's uneven tone. Dead serious scenes revealing dark secret of certain characters' past are followed by poop jokes. Literally. In one scene Florence cries about the death of her daughter, in the next she utters one liners while gleefully killing living dolls with her umbrella. In the climax Lewis literally kills two people with magic, and just a few minutes later he is cheerily pranking his classmates. And so on. The makers of this movie just couldn't find the balance between horror and comedy - the comedy is way too light, and the horror, while not that scary, is way too violent and way too serious to not leave a mark on the characters, especially on Lewis. Lewis killed two people and then went to school to prank ten year old kids with magic. I mean... How? Is he a psychopath or something?
Also, the school was just horrible. What gym teacher would allow a student with a broken leg and a student with a broken arm to play basketball in class? I know this was supposed to signify that kids in that school would rather take a cripple in their team than Lewis, but it was just absurd. It was less believable than the magic in the movie.
All in all, the movie did not give me what I wanted from it. Sorry.