Review: Sherlock Holmes

Despite some directorial problems, the 2009 revamp of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character, Sherlock Holmes, is incredibly well serviced by Downey and a surprisingly entertaining script. The end result is a solid, thrilling blockbuster that even captures much of the passive-aggressive hauteur of the originalSherlock Holmes. That is, if you can tolerate unrealistic explosions and destruction.

First off, I would like to thank whoever decided to NOT make this film a prequel. I know it was not Guy Ritchie who decided this. Ritchie revealed to The New York Times earlier this year that he originally wanted the film to explore Sherlock Holmes’ teenage years. Whoever slapped Ritchie into not doing this, I thank you. Prequels have now become standard for these “re-boots” of formerly active franchises, and I am not a fan of this formula. It simply slows down the story and reintroduces a character often rewritten by someone who did not originally write the character. Prequels are just an excuse for undeserving hands to recreate a character that is not theirs.

Instead, Sherlock Holmes (2009) starts off assuming that the audience already knows the characters. The first scene features Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his sidekick, the ever-worthy Dr. John Watson (Jude Law), capturing the film’s main antagonist, Lord Henry Blackwood (Mark Strong). Blackwood has been committing ritual sacrifices in the name of black magic, resulting in the death of five women. Although Holmes and Watson arrest, try, and execute Blackwood, the villain still manages to stay alive and escape his grave with world domination in mind.

World domination? Yes, I know, it sounds cheesy, even for a Sherlock Holmes story, but that is the antagonist’s primary motivation throughout the film. He wants to use black magic to take over the world! That works in a Sherlock Holmes storyline, right? Well…

The writing in this film is actually not too bad. Yes, there is black magic, but it is handled through Holmes’ recognizable skepticism towards magic. The dialogue is very well written and even fits in with the style of the original stories. The mystery is still very fascinating, and there is still a classically epic revelation of it all in the end. Some parts of the story are even as smart as the titular character. It all makes for an excellent popcorn movie that keeps the audience’s attention throughout the two hour run time. As I was walking out of the theater discussing the film with my friends, we all agreed that we were entertained by Sherlock Holmes more so than we were by Avatar (and I would still give Avatar a solid B+).

It’s all a rollicking time…until gigantic CGI sets are destroyed. It is a Hollywood blockbuster, after all. The problem is that this is also Sherlock Holmes. Many of Ritchie’s action scenes are too reliant on large, extremely out-of-place CGI pieces flying past Holmes’ and Watson’s heads and demolishing England behind them. Ritchie needs to understand that the action in Sherlock Holmes’ stories come through the unraveling of a mystery, not a drastic fight or chase scene. These action scenes almost make the film too silly for its own good.

But for the most part, Sherlock Holmes gets it right. In fact, it gets it pretty damn right a good chunk of the time. The chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law is just about perfect. Yes, there is a not-so-subtle hint of a homosexual relationship between Holmes and Watson. In fact, there are many hints of that, as so many clever film critics have loved to point out lately. Their banter with each other, however, is as witty as it was back when Arthur Conan Doyle helmed the series.

The character Downey creates is sublime. He is the reason this movie is good. The audience receives a very enticing portrait of Sherlock Holmes, filled with many of Downey’s typical mannerisms (such as the use of understatement and eccentric movements), along with classic traits of Doyle’s original character (his extreme eye for detail, his drug use, and his violin). Downey utters each snarky one-liner with perfection, often cause for bigger laughs than you might expect. His character actually makes me want a sequel; I want to see more of this character. He is funny, intelligent, and shrewdly flawed. 

Sherlock Holmes is definitely solid. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law fit their roles perfectly, and I would love to see a sequel because of these characters alone. Although there are some annoyingly silly moments and distracting CGI, the story is smart enough to keep fans from groaning too much. The film is still an A-plus popcorn movie, bound to entertain both Sherlock-fanatics and those who have never even heard of the character.Sherlock Holmes is a fantastic display of the eponymous character, even if it is dangerously close to being another cookie-cutter big-budget blockbuster.