Kenneth Branagh’s remake of Agatha Christie’s novel Death on the Nile provides a generic tale of greed and despair between the passenger on the boat. There’s a lot going on in this crowded sequel to Branagh’s first remake Murder on the Orient Express, which was far more comprehensive in tone and characters that could subdue the mystery itself of the murder.

One problem this film has had was the pace, with the build-up to almost nothing. The scenery has plottered with CGI effects that destroy the very harmony of a scene that means something. It’s tedious at some points in the film as well. A lot of these issues lie just in ignorance from Branagh, even the in the World War One – scene in the trenches, parodying the character is having a weird, fake moustache. The acting is off as well. It was odd that everyone, all the established actors don’t feel tempted to give anything to their character, giving stale, pale performances undermining the passion of Christie’s work.

The worst is Gal Gadot, who has no emotional connection whatsoever to her character making her boring to watch and happy that her character died in the film. Her flat performance did bring any justice to what Branagh tries to achieve. What that is for real, is hard to tell. As nothing of interest is ongoing, with build-ups it takes a lot of time before entering the boat. A lot of characters just exist, not aware of why they’re included on the boat. And when on the boat, everything happens in a quick flash, undetermined on how it happened, why it happened.

Branagh’s interpretations seem to have lost during the principal photography, clouding his judgement of what a thriller, mystery film could prevail instead have a bunch of unknown terrible performances, saying unheard and disastrous lines with no emotion. A lot of questions roses during the film’s progress and are never answered, which doesn’t liken the odds for the movie in the favour.