Underwhelming & predictable. Gives away its key mystery within an hour! Not that clever!

Rating: 5/10 (12 December 2019)

Once again I left a Rian Johnson film asking myself, did I enjoy that or not? My first instinct was 'no', and remains the same ever since. The film has all the elements of a classic whodunnit story, but the film turns out underwhelming. The biggest problem is within an hour, we are told what happened. The main mystery is solved, and the film transforms from a "Whodunnit" into a "How They Got Away With It". However, being a Rian Johnson flick there is no way he would not try to "subvert expectations". Once you realize this, the outcome is very predictable. This happening halfway really hurts "Knives Out" because it takes you almost completely out of the film, which is something Rian is also guilty of doing in his previous film. Figuring out the "murderer" by simply paying attention to something as simple as screen presence and on-screen time, downgrades the mystery element of the film. Other successful comic-style whodunnits which featured a large cast of big name performers, had all the suspects together with the investigator for the majority of the film. This is not the case with "Knives Out". I could easily dismiss over half the suspects in "Knives Out" based on how little involvement their characters were given. Too few lines, rarely mentioned, scarcely involved or seen, little to zero motive = easy to dismiss. In "Clue", every character had a good motive and could easily have been the murderer(s). "Knives Out", you have maybe 3 good suspects and everyone else can be dismissed. In any whodunnit, a key factor is the setting and location of the crime. The house in "Knives Out" is a character on it's own, which is never used to its full potential. In fact, when the film leaves the house over halfway through, I found myself longing for the film to return to the house. In "Clue", the house is dark, creepy, and adds a lot to scenes of tension and comedy. The Knives Out house's foreground is well balanced to scenes of comedy as well as scenes of crime. The house in "Knives Out" is well designed for a whodunnit, but outside of the cool circle of knives, the house is never used to its full potential in this comedy murder mystery. Unlike the "Star Wars" franchise, "Knives Out" is more of Rian Johnson's territory. There is some cleverness, decent comedy, the story is fresh and original, with solid performances, but at the close of "Knives Out" it's underwhelming. I'll stick with "Clue". Also, I LOVE Daniel Craig, but Johnson has him do a charming southern gentlemen style accent. Or as it's commonly referred to more many times in the flick as a KFC Colonel Sanders accent. Really Rian? Daniel is British. Have Daniel be British! British have charming accents too. Daniel Craig reminded me the whole time of Tom Hanks in "The Ladykillers". Trust me I was not the only audience member asking this at the end of the film why on earth would you give Daniel Craig this accent.