Reviews Film / Sherlock Holmes

Pretty damn cool

This movie is very, very, Hollywood, but at the same time, it's an awesome callback to the original characterization of the novels, the main plot of the story is much more Xtreme then the regular Money, Cash, Hoes based plots of novels, but that isn't bad, a movie based around Sherlock outsmarting everyone would get boring, and Moriaty is overused. This movie is a buddy cop superhero mystery with a good deal of the League mixed in, I like about half of those things, but since they integrated them well, I can't complain.

The Good:

• Watson and Homes are spectacular, their chemistry, (Not that kind, okay that kind too) and their contrasting natures were top notch.
• Downey Jr. = Charisma.
• Lord Blackwood's plan is awesomely pulp like and he portrays a wickedly evil badass very well.
• Fight choreography, was a little jumpy at first, and I thought that the pre-asskicking walk through of what Holmes was going to do was an interesting gimmick that they didn't overuse.
• The dialogue was well written, and I thought most of the conversations were funnier then Holmes classic.
• Holmes scanning Mary was a great example of how Holmes fits into the world, i.e. not at all, and why he'll miss Watson.

The Bad:

• Lord Blackwood's plan was solid, but he wasn't an inspired villain, was he greedy? a nationalist? crazy? those questions were left unanswered.
• Adler's actress was terrible, her being American saved us from an awful accent, but there wasn't an excuse for her to be so...bad, I winced whenever her and Holmes got a heart to heart. The only reason I can find for her to be in this film is either a nod to the fandom, offering the sequel hook, or making sure we don't think Holmes is gay, God forbid that happens. Oh, I forgot, Fanservice!
• The Chekhovs Armoury works a lot better with hints we can study, we couldn't taste, smell, or perform experiments of any of the items, this is just like the novels, but it still irks me.
• Very visible ending.

The Miscellaneous:

• I never bought that Blackwood was in any way supernatural, however, I'm a cynical bastard, and this (unintentionally) put me into Holmes head.
• Most of the non stars acting wasn't memorable.