Last night I watched the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie (not to be confused with the 2010 movie...yeah that one with the dinosaur.) I know that there are an abundance of Sherlock Holmes movie adaptations out there but but now that they have run out of movie ideas and every movie must be a remake, or based on a book or graphic novel, of course they needed to take a shot at Sherlock Holmes. I have to confess I have never read any of the Sherlock Holmes books but I do enjoy the 1984 TV series and I have listened to the audio-book versions of many of the Sherlock Holmes tales (nothing like listening to someone read to me with a British accent to help me get to sleep at night.) I do have some preconceived notions of what I want for a Sherlock Holmes movie and was pretty sure that the 2009 reboot would not live up to them, so I started watching the movie with some trepidation.
I was rewarded with an opening sequence involving Holmes busting up some magic ritual and beating people up. Not really what I wanted but exactly what I expected. I like Sherlock Holmes because of the logic, the deductive reasoning and attention to detail and while this movie did show glimmers of that mind that I love to see those were rather overshadowed by the brawling and explosions that seemed rather out of place. The set and the clothing were beautiful but other than that it was fairly generic. The movie seemed to primarily rely on Robert Downey Jr to carry it. It seemed to go with the method of it has Downey in it so people will go see it, he just needs to be himself, beat some people up, and we'll add some explosions, then everyone will go see it. I am not going to argue that this method doesn't work, I just have higher expectations.
I was really thrown by the "magic" angle throughout the film because to me magic is rather anti-Sherlock Holmes. However the the movie did redeem itself at the end with its run through of the logical explanations for the events that had occurred, which restored it greatly in my eyes because I could not accept a Sherlock Holmes movie that left magic as an acceptable explanation. Another issue with this movie, it gave me some major flashbacks to Angels & Demons. Yes, some cult-like group targets some larger group of old men but first kills people at strategic locations throughout the city for their symbolic references which the main character then sees make a cross when planned out on a map and uses this to determine the final location.
Downey's portrayal of Holmes was decent, but I was thrown by his drinking habit since Holmes was more into cocaine and morphine than alcohol but I suppose they didn't want to show that in the movie so they threw in the drinking instead as his drug of choice. The interactions between Holmes and Watson were well portrayed though I did find them a bit quick to brawl but I suppose that is to be expected in a movie intended for the masses. I really enjoyed the two scenes where Holmes deconstructs in his mind what he is going to do before he does it and then the film speeds up to real time and shows the actions. However, this was only done twice and for the most part all the information was just given to the audience with little insight into how Holmes mind was working. The movie had its action and mystery but it just didn't have the depth it needed to make it stick with you after watching it, you leave the movie much the same as you entered and it doesn't leave you anything new to think about.
Overall, the movie was OK, not quite the Sherlock Holmes we know and love but people who want action over intellect will probably think it is an improvement. I am glad I didn't pay to see it in theaters but it was a decent Netflix pick as long as you don't expect too much of it. The 1984 series is available on Netflix streaming and I am going to stick to watching that.
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