Not Black, not White, but Grey

Rating: 4/10 (25 January 2018)

I am a great fan of most of the movie adaptions of Agatha Christie's stories, e.g. Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Death on the Nile (1978) or Evil Under the Sun (1982) and all the other stories around Miss Marple, and I even read some of the books.
First of all - Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney beat Kenneth Branagh in the role of Hercule Poirot. Kenneth Branagh is not doing a bad job, but the other two just play imo the role of the Belgian mastermind more convincing and with more charisma and with a finer, more delicate humor.
2nd: even as the cast of the remake is filled with nowadays famous actors they cannot compete with actors like Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery or Anthony Perkins (just to name a few of cast from the 1974 adaption of Murder on the Orient Express).
As the story is known the only outstanding "merits" of this remake are the implements of the issue of racism (for some historical reasons imo poorly implemented and presented). An easy way nowadays to get some applause and attention. As the story doesn't gives you the chance to hide behind Fx and action-scenes the attention of the audience is focused mostly on the actors/acting. Well, they all do are decent job, but imo nothing outstanding.
Conclusion: Kenneth Branagh's remake is no pain in the a** but no "must-see". If I would have to choose for an evening movie to watch between Sidney Lumet's or Kenneth's movie, I would re-watch the classic from 1974.
Recommendable for fans of the involved actors like Depp, Ridley, Cruz, Dafoe etc. and Kenneth himself of course. To the younger audience who may not know the version from 1974 - give the old one a chance at your home cinema.