Not every franchise is intended to maintain consistent and universal acclaim while racking up billions of box office dollars, but there’s a happy medium to be found between critical and commercial success that not a lot of long-running IPs manage to attain. In the case of Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot series, it’s being damned with the faintest of praise.
A string of mid budget, slightly profitable, star-studded period pieces that spend a couple of undemanding and fitfully entertaining hours unraveling a mystery and/or conspiracy were never intended to reach Marvel-esque heights during their theatrical runs, but the consensus has formed nonetheless that there’s definitely a place for this deliberately old-fashioned style of cinema among modern audiences.
In fact, in what comes across as damning but is actually intended to be a compliment, one social media user reflecting on Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and A Haunting in Venice remarked that “Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot trilogy is the most 3/5 franchise in existence. Competently made, mildly enjoyable with fun casts and playful genre exploration. I would gladly keep watching a new one every couple years.”
Probably not what 20th Century Studios or its Academy Award-winning orchestrator had in mind, but if they continue putting butts on seats to an ever-so-slightly above average level as they have been doing, then there’s no reason why a fourth installment won’t reach screens to keep this mildly-powered train running full steam ahead.
If not, then a trio of solidly unspectacular capers is a decent enough return all things considered.