Critic Reviews

The action scenes are dynamic and exciting, the puzzles are clever, the romance is endearing, and Enola’s commitment to fairness ahead of her society is satisfying.

The film’s plots, fights and chases (one bringing to mind the bazaar sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark) are inventive and dramatic, and the script takes pains to ensure that Enola and her fella share a decent number of heartfelt moments.

Gaping plot holes can’t dim the joy Millie Bobby Brown delivers as Sherlock Holmes’ smarter sister as she faces the fearsome prospects of her brother’s kidnaping and her own wedding.

The result is a chapter that splits the difference between something grown-up and playfully youthful, signaling a series thoughtfully maturing alongside its core audience: young viewers who have been looking up to Brown’s Enola since 2020.

Brown has matured nicely in the role, exhibiting a newfound steeliness and steadily increasing comic chops. Cavill, absent from the proceedings for long stretches, remains a sturdy presence as the most buff screen Sherlock ever, while Helena Bonham Carter is again reliably amusing as Enola and Sherlock’s sardonic mother Eudoria.

The key cast have, nonetheless, established a refreshing chemistry that should carry Ms Holmes comfortably through another few films. Who could resist the heroine discharging a rifle at a presumed brigand from the roof of a hurtling stagecoach? The right kind of fun.

Despite the muddle in this film directed by Philip Barantini, Brown shines, bringing a buoyancy and bite that makes the movie immensely more watchable than comparable entries into the young-adult action-adventure genre.

It’s missing a lot of the eccentric, all-ages charm of its two predecessors (and really missing Daniel Pemberton’s score). Still, in a world where so much IP filmmaking seems focused on keeping audiences perpetually locked in adolescence, it’s nice to see a franchise that wants to grow with its viewers—and with its leading lady.

Director Philip Barantini, while unable to gamely juggle the disparate plot elements, keeps things amiably brisk. The Malta setting and the movie’s “merry mess” make for a fine backdrop for Brown’s continuing evolution as a charming big, or small, screen presence.

Millie Bobby Brown’s third outing as Sherlock Holmes’ maverick, mystery-solving kid sister may be messy, and more than a little convoluted, but it’s a fine caper nonetheless.