10 Movie Franchises That Need To Ditch ONE Thing

Kenneth Branagh absolutely kills it as Hercule Poirot in his new series of Agatha Christie adaptations, but as a director? Ehhh.

On both Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Branagh has delivered firmly workmanlike filmmaking - certainly competent, but lacking in the energy and visual creativity that would match Christie's beloved source material.

Basically, these films feel like generic thrillers rather than giddy pulp - there's no discernible sense of style, unaided by the excess use of unconvincing VFX in Death on the Nile in particular.

While Branagh is already deep into post-production on A Haunting in Venice, if the franchise continues past this it'd sure be nice to see him cede the director's chair to somebody else with a fresh idea for how these movies can be made.

Branagh should absolutely stick around as Poirot of course, but the eye of a younger, hungrier filmmaker should help these films feel less hermetically sealed and, well, a bit stale.

It's probably not happening, given that Branagh is a reliable director who brings his projects in on time and budget, even if you'd probably not call him particularly adventurous.