Sherlock Holmes

I have never read a single Sherlock Holmes story...let me rephrase that...I have never read a Sherlock Holmes story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I have "The Best of Sherlock Holmes" book in my bookcase, but with a thousand billion other things to read, it gets a little tough to fit everything in. Why the confessional? Just to let you know that I don't know jack about Sherlock Holmes, the actual literary character. I am reviewing this film for a position of ignorance, at least as far as the original subject matter is concerned. Does that matter? You be the judge.

So, on to the actual film, which I actually did like, quite a lot. It wasn't a perfect Sherlock Holmes story; I mean, they portray Holmes as an eccentric genius mostly, which is how I would think of him, but there are some scenes, and nothing really big immediately comes to mind, but I'm sure the other members of the Zone who see the movie would be able to point them out...there are some scenes that I think has less to do with "Haha, Sherlock is eccentric, but he's still brilliant", and more to do with "Sherlock Holmes is a bumbling idiot". I don't like that. Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be the most brilliant detective ever created, as far as I'm concerned, and even if he makes a mistake, he's not supposed to look like a moron when he does it.

Anyhow, I was quite surprised that there is a lot of deduction and investigation in this movie, and the really cool thing is, when Sherlock is going over things in his mind, or thinking back on things, you see the things he saw (or foresees, in some cases), which is really kind of neat. Yes, there is action (and I'm sorry to say, some of it is the same poorly edited, fast-cutting crap), and there is some humour (though not as much as I feared there would be), and no, he doesn't actually end up with Rachel Mcadams' character (which was also, something of a relief).

So, as for the actual mystery, well, you know who the villain is, from the trailer. The mystery surrounds what his final plan is going to be, and how he did the "supernatural" feats that he is credited with doing. For his plan, it's pretty much run-of-the-mill, which was a tad disappointing, but I think it's intimidating writing for Sherlock Holmes...I mean, if I had to come up with a brilliant plan for him to solve, I could do it, but it would be tough. Like I said, it's just breaking down how Lord Blackwood did things, and when he's going to strike next, that is the true mystery.

So, as for the players. Downey Jr. was pretty good as Sherlock (even if he kept losing his English accent), Jude Law was pretty good as Watson (he did a bit more than I expected.) McAdams was a pretty face and not much else as Irene Adler, and Mark Strong was imposing as Blackwood, though he appeared very little in the movie. Oh, and yes, Moriarty does appear in the movie, in case any Sherlock fans were wondering.

Anyhow, that's a wrap on the last 2009 movie I'm reviewing this year. My top ten will follow.

I bid thee a fond goodnight.

- Stephenstein