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It's fine, and might well get better. My biggest complaint is they worked a little too hard to establish the characters, and it was a bit stiff and occasionally clunky, but this is sadly common, and often the 2nd installment is better.

One thing which is momentarily jarring is casting black actors in roles which are anachronistic. However, after a second you realize you're not supposed to pay attention to that, and then it's okay. And given that the woman playing the doctor is one of the best members of the cast, and she wouldn't be in it otherwise, I'm pleased with their choice.

The mystery isn't particularly challenging, but neither is it painfully obvious. The set design is only at about the same level as Murdoch Mystery, which I find okay but not especially enjoyable. Too bad it wasn't filmed in Newport.

I haven't read any of the books, so I can't say how well this conforms to the source material, but that doesn't seem to me to be important. The cookie lady mysteries are good, and yet I find those books unreadable.

Some early reviews made me expect a 'feminist polemic', but it's not. There are a couple of gratuitous 'girl power' moments in the movie, but they aren't that jarring, and every Marvel movie has some moments where I go "What?!", so why should this one be different?

The performances are fine, and Larson and Jackson are quite good, especially together, and some of the moments called out as being 'feminist' by people critical of the movie can also be taken as integral to the character arc (which is mostly how I took them).

Some reviewers complain that it 'disrupts the MCU', and perhaps it does, but I can't keep that straight anyway, so I just take these movies one at a time - I actually liked the prequel aspects. Overall this movie is brainless fun: not quite as good as Winter Soldier (which is my favorite Marvel movie so far), but on a par with a lessor Iron Man.

I love the book, and I even love the goofy version with the giant chicken. But this version is just nuts. Aside from a few attractive cast members, it has absolutely nothing going for it. The plot makes almost no sense, the elements of the book which were such fun are all missing, and there are scenes which drag on endlessly.

It was slightly entertaining to watch while trying to figure out why they made the movie, but thank heaven for fast forwarding.