Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile, was a movie that we quite enjoyed. With a more easy to follow mystery and cool exotic locales the film was an improved mystery and film over its predecessor though the final reveal was more predictable.
Austin : 9.1/10
Non-Spoiler:
Death on the Nile is the sequel to Murder on the Orient, and it dodges the sequel curse. I thought Death on the Nile goes above its predecessor, bringing back that great mystery with less confusion. I love our characters and although the ending wasn’t as shocking, I thought it was a better plot, and our characters were wonderful.
Bouc (Tom Bateman) and Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) make their return to the silver screen 5 years after we first meet them. They have barely aged at all, and the story seamlessly picks up where we left off. Hercule has changed since we first met him, and the world is no longer black and white. This makes for a more interesting character, as he begins to change due to those around him. We didn’t see much character development in the first, so Hercule is a relatively untapped gold mine. We begin to learn about who he was, and how we got the cold-hearted man that we started with. Bouc is also a changed man, but for an entirely different reason. A Bouc with a person makes him a much more likeable character, and one you begin to root for.
Our murder suspects are wonderfully bizarre. No one is the same, and their backstories give them all motive. Every time you think you understand one of them, information is revealed or changed to destroy that idea. I loved how some of the changes were super blatant, and some of them required some thinking and connecting the dots. It keeps that mystery vibe alive not only with the murder, but the mystery of our characters identities. I love that our cast shrinks ever so slightly, and the characters all make sense. I didn’t struggle to understand who was who, or who was left over. I had a firm grasp on what I was watching and who could have potentially done it.
The plot, pulled straight from the novel, was equally well done. I didn’t think it was a ton better than the first, and the style is nearly identical. I did like that the setup begins before the cruise ship ever leaves the port. I feel it sets up the story a lot better and gives us legs to stand on. It also made the characters make lot more sense, as we knew them before the super tense murder mystery. It doesn’t hold many other off brand qualities, but I thought the setting of this mystery was quite entertaining. Loved the Nile.
Death on the Nile can be consumed as a sequel, but can also be watched as a stand alone. I thought the movie was a ton of fun, even better than the first one. Our characters were quite good, and the plot was equally entertaining. I would have loved one more twist at the end, but we don’t always get perfect movies.
Spoiler:
Don’t got much to say on the spoilers side, other than I saw the ending coming. There were moments that threw off how confident I was in my final murderers, but Jackie and Simon were the most obvious pair for both motive and means. What really matters is that I felt like that idea was only a hunch for most of the movie, and until it was revealed I wasn’t fully confident. It also changed a couple of times based on the evidence. All around it kept me on my toes, and left me hungry for more.
Sebastian : 9.0/10
Non-Spoiler:
This was a film that I was looking forward to especially after my rewatch of Murder on the Orient Express it made me remember why I liked this murder mystery-style story. Once again we see Hercule Poirot and a colourful cast of characters on a mode of transport when suddenly someone is killed.
The first thing I want to bring up about this film is how nice and stylized the look of the film is. We constantly see these beautiful shots of Egypt and the Nile with these bright and vibrant colours we get with the sunrises, underwater shots, and the landscapes of the surrounding terrain. Kenneth Branagh as a director really makes you feel the contrast between the beauty and luxurious nature of Egypt and the eerie and unsettling environment upon the boat. To stick with Branagh his performance as Poirot is once again the best in the film as he is the character we spend the most time with and who we get to know the most. This film really does a good job showing us more than the detective but the man underneath and it was interesting as someone who hasn’t read the book to learn about his history in the war and how this shaped him into the man we see in the films. He definitely was also changed by the first film and his perspective on innocence and guilt might have shifted as well. It was nice to see Bouc back played again by Tom Bateman who I thought was a fun character in the first film and one I did not expect to return in this film so that was a welcome surprise. The group of suspects we had was all interesting but of course, their screen time is limited. The mystery this time around was more straightforward but also less exciting which was a disappointment, however, the more straightforward nature of this mystery did make it easier to follow. The reveal was also predictable which wasn’t as fun or as dramatic as the last film.
Spoiler:
The big spoiler is obviously the reveal that it was all the passengers working together who came Like I said the big end reveal was predictable as I could’ve told you early on it was Simon and most likely Jackie as well who committed the murders. The only big surprise for me was the death of Bouc which threw me for a loop and was completely unexpected.
Nathanyal : TBD/10
