Review of the original movie here.

The movie opens on Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) on the run from the police in 1880s London. We get about a minute in, and flip to the favourite trope of the first movie: Enola turns to the camera and says something like "maybe I should explain how I got here." So we flash back to something less exciting than a foot chase, namely her trying and mostly failing to set up her own detective agency. The reason for her failure: she's female (and young). In this version of London, there's diversity and no racism, but women (more historically accurately) lack many rights we take for granted now.

Enola's only client is Bessie Chapman (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss) who is about ten years old(?), poor, and attempts to pay Enola a couple pennies (which Enola refuses). Bessie's "sister" (another match girl) has gone missing. Ironically, after I'd watched the movie I found the movie's tie-in to the 1888 Matchgirls' Strike more interesting than the movie itself ...

I loved that they emphasized that everyone needs help sometimes, and no one should try to do everything on their own. This was stated by Enola's mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) and was a dig at her son Sherlock's isolation across the entire Conan-Doyle canon, but was targeted at Enola - and got Enola to reach out and start to build bridges. And even help her older brother to start to do so too.

The movie is glossy, well constructed, and mildly entertaining. I still don't like Enola talking to the camera - it's the smugness and self-awareness that bothers me. Again, okay for a Deadpool comedy, not so hot for a Sherlock-Holmes-adjacent mystery. And the whole thing is too twee, too conveniently fantasy. I imagine there'll be a third installment, I'm less certain I'll return for it.