The most popular whodunnit mystery genre is back in a fancy, non-groundbreaking and enthrallingly delivered story about a murder and its resolution by private eye Benoit Blanc. Overall the movie is entertaining as well as well-realised in the modern world. In a world were cameras, smartphones and internet reign, "getting away with murder" Agatha Christie style is not easy to pull off.

However, Rian Johnson proves his worth as a talented director and writer with this film. After his unfortunate contribution to the Star Wars lore, many were scrutinizing his later works to try to proof his seemingly "unworthiness" to contribute to such a famous saga. Hopefully this entry would prove them wrong.

It's always hard to talk about the plot of a Clue-like movie such as this as the mystery is the central core of it. Therefore, I'll focus on the performances of the cast and the development of the case itself. Contrary to other movies and books of the similar genre, this film takes some liberties that may be new to it(I haven't watched every movie of the whodunnit genre so I can't confirm this case). It doesn't really follow the private detective. I'd say he isn't the "main protagonist" of this story at all. Or at least the story isn't channeled through him. At the end of the day, it's not his home where the audience goes to rest from the case, it's someone else's. And I am afraid saying the name might reveal a clue so I'll just not mention it at all.

I'd say the performances are extraordinary and enthralling but that is not the case because they are almost nonexistent. The biggest downside the movie has is that it features a lot of talent with an impressive track record and yet they are misused. They seem to be there merely to bring in big names to lure people in to watch it. But each participation serves a very superficial role in the story and after that they are nowhere to be found. In fact, it'd be incredibly damaging if the movie didn't turn out to be greatly performed by those who have more screen time/are central to the plot and the story itself wasn't so well delivered and paced.

As for the development of the case, I'd say it isn't too convoluted nor is it trying to be to confuse the audience. It doesn't want to create a complex mystery in order to make the audience gasp at the reveal of the culprit. However this reveal is a staple of the genre so expect it and look foward to it. I simply personally thought it was given away too soon in the story and from then on there wasn't much mystery left. And again, I feel the misuse of the other characters missed the opportunity to suggest other possible culprits that would have added more "juice" to the mystery.

However, there are very few subplots to keep track of so everything is understood from the beginning. There is no reason to have to focus on the details and scene clues and hints, no matter how subtle they are, to keep up or allow the audience to come to those conclusions by themselves. Something I personally think it's one of the genre's highlights as they make me "feel smarter" and even more involved in the plot. Additionally, I also believe it robs the movie of a more dramatic reveal of the culprit as well as its very own rewatchability. The plot is too straightforward and un-entangled to leave the audience wanting to figure it out on their own. But again, the simplicity of the plot may have been a director's choice and the focus of the movie might have lied elsewhere.

IN CONCLUSION, this movie is perfectly entertaining, easy to watch and follow, and amusing at some points. It's high level cast provide a good performance despite the little dialog and intervention they had they made the most of it and it contributes to the movie. The case was interesting, well-paced and delivered and straightforward. The "twist" is not really its strongest suit nor is it its whodunnit convoluted multi-focused plot development. So in other words, it contributes to the genre and doesn't really redefine it, so hardcore mystery fans may be underwhelmed with it. Especially after all the praise it received and is receiving. It's simply average with good entertainment value.