Very mixed - some things great, others godawful

Rating: 2/10 (21 June 2018)

The Good:
-Well done visually. Great color palette, sets, costumes, and especially the cinematography
-Impressive cast, and all of the actors who received a decent amount of screen time gave good performances
-Some very good scenes sprinkled throughout. The scene between Branagh and Depp was the only truly great scene in the movie.
The Bad:
-Underused actors. Many great actors are given barely any screen time. Judi Dench in particular only has a couple of minutes. Hardly what an actress of her caliber should receive.
-Awful CG shots of the train. The movie legitimately looks like The Polar Express at points.
-Drawn out first act, including a very unnecessary and poorly done opening.
The Ugly:
-The dialogue/script. The dialogue has occasional moments of greatness, especially in the second and third act, but most of it is unbearably bad. All of the characters just give a giant monologue explaining themselves completely out of nowhere. The movie even had the perfect opportunity to put this exposition into Poirot's interviews with each character, but instead characters just launch into monologue. Bouc in particular is very grating and poorly written.
-The mystery. In the book, Poirot's detective skills, whilst extraordinary, still felt grounded and realistic. In this, it feels almost supernatural. Clues and leads from the book are cast aside and Poirot pulls all of his revelations from thin air. Very lazy writing.
-The pacing. First act is too long, second act is too short, third act is too long. The film takes it sweet ass time to get going, but leaves out all of the setup from the book, making it feel less like setup and more like 40 minutes of nothing. Less material took more time than more material should have. The investigation, which should be tense and slow burning, is rushed through and feels empty. Rather than letting the audience figure everything out alongside Poirot, the film makes the audience watch him interview everyone and then explain everything. Very boring. Ending was simply drawn out, unsatisfying, and too long.
-The twist. Didn't make sense in the book, makes even less sense here.
-Filler. The film, without filler, is barely feature length, when if done properly it should be well over two hours.
TLDR- Boring and poorly paced, despite interesting visuals. Very disappointing. 3/10