Sherlock Holmes

I must thank you readers for sticking with me even though I’m doing terrible at meeting my own deadlines. If you’re still reading, then I thank you again. I was going to have my review for Sherlock Holmes ready about two days ago, but I went on an unscheduled road trip over the weekend and I got a little distracted.

So, I finally got to see Shelock Holmes last night, and I was quite excited for a number of reasons. First off, I have always been a fan of Holmes, I’ve been a fan of Robert Downey Jr. since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, so I was excited to see him play detective again, and the trailer did make this movie look good.

The movie began and within the first five minutes, I was quite upset because it starts off with a heavy action scene where Holmes and Watson are stopping a human sacrificial ritual by a dark magician named Blackwood, and I felt that wasn’t very true to Holmes, the action part anyway. I know that Holmes was learned in fighting and defense and whatnot, but it was a little too action heavy.

Holmes begins narrating to himself about how he plans to attack a particular guy and you start to see the intelligence of Holmes start to blossom, and you see the battle tactics of Holmes, and you begin to realize that it’s not just pointless action, and my hope was renewed a little.

So, the movie continues and the bad guy Blackwood is hung, but before he tells them that he will return from the grave and kill three others. Of course, everyone thinks he’s a crazy old magician (isn’t that just a classic movie mistake, to NOT listen to the crazy magician’s warnings?) and they hang him and bury him, and well, just as he predicts, he comes back and people start dying.
Holmes is trying to figure out the case while Watson is more worried about his love life. I felt they could have explored Watson’s relationship a little deeper with his girlfriend, Mary, because it left questions unanswered in my opinion. There is a woman who I assume was an old girlfriend of Holmes, played by Rachel McAdams, who was kind of a double agent for a mysterious man (who they reveal near the end is Moriarty).

There were aspects of this film that I enjoyed, but far too many aspects made me feel inadequate and it bugged me. It was a film about mystery and Holmes and Watson figuring out how Blackwood was doing all this and it doesn’t reveal anything until the remaining ten minutes of the two hour film. The problem with the reveal was so much of it was way over my head and it made me feel stupid like I wasn’t paying enough attention, even though I was focused on it.

The film jumped around a lot. It was hard to follow in points because they would be investigating one thing, then the next scene, they would be doing something completely different and they would determine clues in ways that were confusing, and like I said earlier, it made me feel stupid, which is something a film should NEVER do to its audience.

This film truly reminded me of Batman Begins, not so much because it was an origins story, but because I wanted to see Moriarty and they kept hinting at him and then it ends with them going to see what he’s doing, so it reminded me of how Gordon told Batman about the Joker and just got you hankering it. The bad guys were similar in a sense and Holmes had to get over himself to finally solve the case. At least Ras Al Ghul in Batman Begins was a lot cooler than Blackwood. Blackwood I felt was a pathetic villain.

Overall, it was a good popcorn movie, the sort that you’d throw your popcorn at, but it was enjoyable and the performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were surprisingly good and even though this film was mediocre, it did make me crave a sequel, just because they portrayed their characters well enough to want to see them do it again.

So, I would recommend this as a dollar theater movie or a Netflix rental, but I felt slightly cheated at seeing it full priced. I give it 6 out of 10.

Next up is The Lovely Bones and I intend on reviewing it probably Tuesday. Keep reading.