Death on the Nile

Released last weekend in theaters, Death on the Nile is the newest mystery film by Kenneth Branagh with new characters, a bigger story, and another murder.

Death on the Nile, the sequel to 2017's Murder on the Orient Express, once again follows the world-famous detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) to solve another mystery. We find Poirot a part of a wedding party accompanying a wealthy newlywed couple on their honeymoon boat tour on the Nile. Unfortunately, the couple's honeymoon is tragically cut short when there is a murder aboard their boat. Poirot must quickly piece the clues together to solve the murder before the killer strikes again.

I found this movie to be significantly better than the first entry. The story was bigger and more exciting, you got to know the characters better than in the original and the mystery itself was better. In this film, once the actual murder investigation started, the movie's thrills and suspense were almost constant. There were many unexpected twists and turns and even a few times that got me to jump. There were even a few surprisingly emotional moments as well. The characters in this movie are very likable (Gal Gadot and Letitia Wright come to mind) and have some good chemistry between them. The characters feel more developed and more complicated. Gal Gadot's character as an example, she does things that seem very nice that people love her for but also has some backstory to make people hate her. Because they spent more time with the characters and relationships, the final reveals and twists feel much more earned and emotional. Also, being a sequel, the movie can build on the characters of Hercule and Bouc (Tom Bateman) and create a stronger relationship than was in the first film which also led to some nice moments between the pair.

However, even though the second half of the film was great, there were some significant issues with the first half. The main issue with this film is that once again, it took too long to get to the actual mystery with the actual murder on the Nile not happening until an hour into the film. There were a few sequences in the first half that felt a little drawn out and unnecessary, specifically the scene at the tomb, that did not add much to the plot itself and could have been trimmed out to help get to the murder faster. The other main issue was that there were a few too many subplots, specifically the romantic plot with Hercule that did not seem to go anyway and just inflated the run time.

Overall, I felt this movie was a good addition to the mystery genre and with a little more trimming on the runtime it could've been a great film.

Grade: B Score:7/10 Recommendation: If you are a mystery fan, go see it.