I wanted to like this. I watched the movie and it piqued my interest.

Then I dove into the books and STARS AND GARTERS was it beyond this pile.

The movie completely misses the messaging of the book, full stop. The book balances Enola escaping from Mycroft and Sherlock (both being raging chauvinists) and finding her place in a world while not drawing attention to herself. Victorian London sees women as pretty baubles for men to collect and any (upper class) woman wanting to study, not wear a dress, or do anything but be a housewife and pop out babies is foolish or crazy.

This movie infuriates me by picking the very actions the character decries in the book and plowing foolhardily forward. For example: In the book, Enola bikes away from her life as a squire's daughter in a traveling suit. She changes into her mother's mourning clothing as a disguise to make her way to London, via train. Enola specifically calls out to the reader that her brothers would expect her to disguise herself as a young lad. So what do the writers do? Yup! Poor Millie Bobby Brown is shunted into trousers and waistcoat.

I did like the terrorism aspect of Lady Eudoria Holmes. Helena Bonham Carter steals every scene she's in and I'm totally okay with that. She is an absolute delight.

I don't appreciate Tewksbury cast as a romantic foil for Enola. Make no mistake, that's what the writers set him as here. He was 12 in the books. They meet again after being kidnapped by the same cutthroats. Tewksy runs home because life is really hard for the not rich. (Okay, he's a little more sympathetic than that but that's the gist.) The point being, Enola is not even remotely interested in Tewksy because she's got a lot of other things on at the moment.

Anyway, this movie makes a mockery of the books and completely swallows the "Not like other girls" trope hook, line and sinker.

Just read the books instead.