Sherlock Holmes is Awesome

It is, as most reviewers have pointed out, more James Bond than Sherlock Holmes. But that said, it is much truer to the Arthur Conan Doyle character and corpus than one would expect. If you want to know what to expect from Robert Downey, Jr., well, he's still Iron Man.

This is an action movie, with a lot of fighting, jumping, falling, and swinging from any number of Victorian ropes, chains, pulleys, you name it. On the other hand, to pull a very small spoiler, even in his fighting Holmes is intensely cerebral, doing this rehearsal in his imagination before he strikes a blow. In addition, everything that happens, every mystery large or small, is eventually explained in a very Holmesian fashion.

Watson is brought up several notches in physical ability and is almost a match for Holmes in deduction. Making them more equal partners than hero/sidekick was plenty of fun. The villain(s) were great, and you know who shows up in the margins.

This is a Victorian superhero movie, and that is just fine with me. You will enjoy it, no matter how stuffy a Sherlock Holmes fan you may be.

Comments

[Jim Meidinger]

Basil Rathbone is,to me, the only Holmes.

[Coriane]

I liked it but with inhibitions.

[KB]

Jim: I still have a fondness for Rathbone's Holmes. But have you seen Jeremy Brett as Holmes in the Granada Television series? It was broadcast on PBS. I am sorry, but Brett blows Rathbone right out of the water. His was astoundingly true to the original, and every innovation was dead spot on.

Coriane: What inhibitions, exactly?

[Jim Meidinger]

Brett was good but imho, Rathbone was the perfect Holmes. I suppose a large part of my opinion that he was the first Holmes . I listened to my father's album of the complete series as a child,, so my view is slightly skewed.

[KB]

Jim: I respect such family traditions. But I have read most of the Doyle corpus and I cannot regard the Basil Rathbone movies as more than a dumbing down. Consider the Watson in that series. He was a buffoon. Rathbone brought Holmes to a very large audience and that is an achievement worth celebrating. But Brett's Holmes was the real thing. So was David Burke's Watson.

[Jim Meidinger]

My wife always says I'm stuck in the past. I am in respect to Rathbone.

[Travis]

I have to agree with you whole-heartedly on this one Dr. B. I loved the movie. I of course have the advantage of never seeing, reading or listening to old versions of Sherlock Holmes - so I don't have any pre-conceptions before hand. Of course, I love Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as actors and Guy Ritchie as a director, so to me, it was a great film.

[KB]

Thanks, Travis. Now: read some Sherlock Holmes. You have much to look forward to.