I was insanely excited for this movie. A stellar class led by a very respectable director, based on a best selling mystery novel, and several fantastic trailers put this right up my most anticipated list. But could the stellar cast bring the Orient Express to life? Keep reading to find out.
This movie follows world famous detective Hercule Poirot as he travels on the Orient Express. A passenger on the train is then murdered, leading Poirot into a big who dunnit mudrer mystery. That's about all I'll say about the plot because I want to stay as far from spoilers as I can, that way everyone can see the mystery unfold for themselves.
Kenneth Branagh both directs this film and stars as Poirot. This is the only character that really gets developed so we see him the most, and he is absolutely incredible in this role. There is a scene towards the end hinting at a potential sequel and I would definitely see it just for his portrayal. Now when I say he gets developed I mostly mean compared to everyone else, because no one else is developed in this movie. The ensemble cast all deliver great performances but everything we learn about the characters is told through exposition that Poirot seems to pull out of his ass. Surprisingly one of my favourite performances in the movie was Johnny Depp's. I usually don't like his recent movies at all, but I found that his performance was tied back to the point where it was fun to watch, but not crazy to the point of an Alice in Wonderland, or The Lone Ranger. Daisy Ridley is also very good which is great to see as she is an actress I really hope builds a strong career. There are a lot of great actors that I wish had more to do in this movie such as Judi Dench, Josh Gad, and especially Willem Dafoe. So while the cast is great they unfortunately aren't developed nearly as well as they could be. Names are often mentioned once and then we are expected to know exactly who people are talking about. The only performance I really had any issue with was Michelle Pfieffer's, as she is constantly over the top to the point of unbelievability.
Stylistically this movie is fantastic. The set that most of the action takes place in is very immersive and suits the story very well. The cinematography is also gorgeous whether shots are inside the train or outside. The beautiful, well composed shots are complimented beautifully by a gorgeous score and really well done sounds editing. The storytelling however is a major flaw in this movie. I was really excited to play along and try to solve the mystery during the movie but a lot of the information we are given is through the straight out of Poirot's ass exposition. The movie's tell it rather than show it approach makes the mystery a lot less fun than it could be. The murder and clues also revolve around a completely different event, which wouldn't be a big deal if we were actually given some development of that event. Whether it's character points or story points, the amount of information the audience is given in this movie is nowhere near what it should be, and that makes the theatre experience a lot less enjoyable.
Luckily the film is interesting enough to keep my attention and the ending is fairly satisfying. While the performances are solid all around, the visuals are great, and the sound design fits the film perfectly, the storytelling is the downfall of the film, bogging down the fun mystery I expected to see. At the end of the day I was looking for a fun murder mystery, and while the film is decent overall, it failed to deliver that fun mystery I wanted to play along with so I can't quite get it to a positive rating.
Rating: 2.75/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
This movie follows world famous detective Hercule Poirot as he travels on the Orient Express. A passenger on the train is then murdered, leading Poirot into a big who dunnit mudrer mystery. That's about all I'll say about the plot because I want to stay as far from spoilers as I can, that way everyone can see the mystery unfold for themselves.
Kenneth Branagh both directs this film and stars as Poirot. This is the only character that really gets developed so we see him the most, and he is absolutely incredible in this role. There is a scene towards the end hinting at a potential sequel and I would definitely see it just for his portrayal. Now when I say he gets developed I mostly mean compared to everyone else, because no one else is developed in this movie. The ensemble cast all deliver great performances but everything we learn about the characters is told through exposition that Poirot seems to pull out of his ass. Surprisingly one of my favourite performances in the movie was Johnny Depp's. I usually don't like his recent movies at all, but I found that his performance was tied back to the point where it was fun to watch, but not crazy to the point of an Alice in Wonderland, or The Lone Ranger. Daisy Ridley is also very good which is great to see as she is an actress I really hope builds a strong career. There are a lot of great actors that I wish had more to do in this movie such as Judi Dench, Josh Gad, and especially Willem Dafoe. So while the cast is great they unfortunately aren't developed nearly as well as they could be. Names are often mentioned once and then we are expected to know exactly who people are talking about. The only performance I really had any issue with was Michelle Pfieffer's, as she is constantly over the top to the point of unbelievability.
Stylistically this movie is fantastic. The set that most of the action takes place in is very immersive and suits the story very well. The cinematography is also gorgeous whether shots are inside the train or outside. The beautiful, well composed shots are complimented beautifully by a gorgeous score and really well done sounds editing. The storytelling however is a major flaw in this movie. I was really excited to play along and try to solve the mystery during the movie but a lot of the information we are given is through the straight out of Poirot's ass exposition. The movie's tell it rather than show it approach makes the mystery a lot less fun than it could be. The murder and clues also revolve around a completely different event, which wouldn't be a big deal if we were actually given some development of that event. Whether it's character points or story points, the amount of information the audience is given in this movie is nowhere near what it should be, and that makes the theatre experience a lot less enjoyable.
Luckily the film is interesting enough to keep my attention and the ending is fairly satisfying. While the performances are solid all around, the visuals are great, and the sound design fits the film perfectly, the storytelling is the downfall of the film, bogging down the fun mystery I expected to see. At the end of the day I was looking for a fun murder mystery, and while the film is decent overall, it failed to deliver that fun mystery I wanted to play along with so I can't quite get it to a positive rating.
Rating: 2.75/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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