I really enjoyed Knives Out and for that reason I was quite excited to watch this sequel. Unfortunately it did not deliver for me.

The start of the film is quite slow and probably required further editing as it really didn't play much into the story at all or develop the characters. They certainly needed more development as the chemistry of the cast was not nearly as strong as in Knives Out.

However, once the film does get going it's like listening to one of your teachers speak a mile a minute going into super specific details and trying to absorb it all only to open the final exam and realize you only really needed to know the basics.

Likewise, this movie tries way too hard to be complex and throws a ton of theories and attempted twists at you into short time frames when in fact almost all of them are inconsequential to the conclusion. I suspect the theories and twists were raced through quickly as too much run time was spent on other unimportant scenes.

The greatest appeal in whodunnit movies for me is when you feel you've bought into a somewhat convincing theory theory that you develop in your mind while watching only to end up getting totally fooled at the final reveal. Unfortunately the theories offered in this film were underdeveloped , not convincing , nor particularly thrilling. It feels even less rewarding when you discover how simple the mystery really is at the end.

If one was trying to illustrate the need to apply Occam's razor then this film would be a good place to start as nothing about its conclusion is very complex despite its attempts at appearing sophisticated.

At the films end, Daniel Craig's character unravels the mystery with such vigor that would suggest that he was some super sleuth , but after breaking it all down and realizing it's simplicity I am left asking why this mystery even required the worlds greatest detective Benoit Blanc to begin with.

The movie often uses the metaphor of peeling back the layers of an onion to see what's at the center but when you do that with this movie you realize there isn't anything special here.

If I had to describe the movie in one word I would say it was underwhelming. It would be fine if it wasn't preceded by Knives Out which I found to be excellent.