Enola Holmes 3: The Game Is Afoot in Malta, and So Is the Formula
Directed by Philip Barantini · Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill
Mystery · 2026-07-01
“Enola swaps London grit for Maltese blue and mature twists, and in trading her suffragette soul for a sun-drenched holiday, the franchise becomes prettier, darker, and just a little emptier.”
Enola Holmes 3 sends its heroine to Malta, where Millie Bobby Brown's detective is nervously prepping her own wedding when brother Sherlock, played by Henry Cavill, gets kidnapped, and soon after her future mother-in-law is abducted too. Philip Barantini, the one-take maestro behind Adolescence and Boiling Point, takes the director's chair from Harry Bradbeer, with returning writer Jack Thorne on script duty. It is darker, more mature, and by far the best-looking entry in the series.
The roast is that it is gorgeous and hollow where it used to have heart. The first two films ran on real social stakes, the suffrage movement and the fight for workers' rights, and that vitality is exactly what is missing here. Trade the conscience for scenery and violent twists and you get a fun caper that no longer means anything. It does not help that the supporting cast is thinner: a more measured Watson and diminished family dynamics drain the warmth that Enola's extended clan used to bring.
And yet it mostly works as entertainment. Brown is genuinely commanding, no longer a plucky teen but a confident sleuth stepping out of Sherlock's shadow, the action is kinetic, the puzzles are clever, and Malta sparkles. It is a good time. It is just not a meaningful one, and it repeats old franchise mistakes it clearly knows by heart.
- 01
Millie Bobby Brown owns the role, a confident darker detective rather than a plucky adolescent.
- 02
Malta is a stunning sun-soaked backdrop and Barantini shoots the action with real kinetic energy.
- 03
The central mystery is clever, with satisfying set pieces and sharp, well-staged deductions.
- 04
The romance is endearing and the tone finally lets Enola stand fully on her own two feet.
- 01
It drops the timely social stakes, suffrage and workers' rights, that gave the first two films their pulse.
- 02
The supporting cast is thinner: a more measured Watson and reduced family dynamics sap the warmth.
- 03
It repeats old franchise mistakes rather than evolving a formula it clearly knows by heart.
- 04
Style over substance: gorgeous scenery papers over a story with noticeably less to say.
Enola Holmes fans and YA-mystery lovers who want charm, clever puzzles and Millie Bobby Brown carrying a gorgeous, breezy Mediterranean caper.
Anyone who loved the first two films for their social bite and rich supporting family, which this sun-soaked sequel largely leaves at home.
Netflix sold it on Malta, murder and Millie, and delivered exactly that glossy postcard. The trailers promised a bigger, darker adventure and just forgot to mention it left the franchise's conscience back in Victorian London.
Your website, CV, or whatever you made. I'll roast that too.
A full teardown from €2,99. No mercy.