I’ve just seen it, and it is pretty much as predicted by posters in previousthreads, most neatly summed up thusly:
This is it precisely. IMO, it bears less resemblance to the original than Will Smith’s I, Robot did to the works of Asimov.
It takes a few slight kernels of Sherlockian lore – Holmes’ amazing deductions from slight clues, his ability as a boxer, Watson’s occasional annoyance with Holmes’ inconsiderate behavior – and exaggerates them beyond all reasonable bounds. It is chock full of violent fist fights, explosions, and gunplay, way beyond anything seen in the canon. It also has elements of the occult and supernatural that are completely unknown in the adventures, and turns Irene Adler into a [potential] romantic interest for Holmes.Like the Wild Wild West film, it features ludicrous and impossible steampunk technology and scientific anachronisms like a device that uses radio waves, and references by characters to electromagnetic radiation and “radio” long before Marconi.
It also has the distinction, as someone at a Sherlockian meeting I attended last week pointed out, of being the very first film or TV production in which the actor playing Watson is taller than Holmes.
My father, an invested member of the Baker Street Irregulars and as much of a Sherlockian purist as you’re likely to find, liked the production design and found it entertaining, once he let go of the idea of it having any connection to the canon. Even so, he found the central plot idea – a powerful evil mastermind attempting to rule the world – rather hackneyed and predictable.
So if you like mindless actions films with fancy special effects and completely implausible plots, and are not a purist, you may enjoy this film. Just don’t imagine it has anything to do with the works of A.C. Doyle.
The friend that I usually attend movies with can’t stand Robert Downey Jr (I’m still amazed that she was willing to see Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, although she enjoyed both of them). When we were watching the preview for Sherlock Holmes she turned to me and said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really want to see this.” She did mention, though, that one of the reasons was to see Downey get punched in the face by Jude Law.
This was evident from the trailer, and isn’t dissuasive for me at all. The Jeremy Brett series is perfection, as far as faithful adaptation goes. I wouldn’t ever want to be the actor who next attempts to give us Doyle’s Holmes, it’s a losing game.
This looks good, as a vehicle for Robert Downey Jr. to chew the scenery as a charismatic/obnoxious genius with assumed superiority and a penchant for central nervous system stimulants.
I am still questionable about going. I am not a Downing fan (and am a Holmes fan) and I have my doubts whether he can do anything to approach Holmes. When it makes it to HBO I may watch it.
I’ll be taking my 12 year old nephew to it on Monday.
Glad they recut it or whatever they did. As I recall, and I may be off-base, when we originally saw the trailer for this last summer, it was rated R and featured a gay-love plot line between Holmes and Watson. Now at release, it’s rated PG-13 and I’ve heard nothing of that plot-line in reviews.
That’s disappointing. Both of the above are the things that most bug me about Holmes adaptations. The point behind the supernatural stuff in canon was that Holmes made it UN-supernatural. And didn’t Watson make it clear in one of the stories that Irene Adler was NOT someone Holmes was interested in romantically?
I just saw this. I was not expecting it to be anything like Doyle’s Holmes stories, but that it would be a great deal of fun, and I was not let down. I haven’t read the articles yet but (though the prospect of steamy action between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. is admittedly exciting) I think a gay love element would have distracted from the main plot, and it was a pretty long movie as is.
Edited to add: I also think that the slash fans in the audience will not be disappointed by
The fact that Holmes initially tries to sabotage Watson’s relationship with his fiancée and that Watson puts off meeting with her family in order to be with Holmes.
With regard to the supernatural elements,
They are all revealed to be illusions.
I am left with only one question.
How did Holmes figure out that the giant spoke French?
Just saw it. As someone whose closest exposure to Holmes is House, I fully enjoyed it. Good sets, good action, good acting (save, perhapse, for McAdams), and the plot, while a little silly, didn’t drag for a moment. I plan to see it again.
Of course, my main motivation for attending was the slash, which practically dripped off the screen.
I am a lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan, and while I agree that liberties were taken liberally, I still enjoyed it. I am not surprised to find out that the director’s original vision was a romantic interaction between Holmes and Watson, because while I was watching it, all I could think was, “Holmes is SO GAY in this movie!” I felt the character of Irene Adler was an annoying distraction-- a bland love interest character crowbarred in to satisfy mainstream standards.
I was annoyed by the supernatural stuff…
Good thing it was all trickery, or I would have been forced to change my opinion from “liberties taken, but I liked it,” to, “How DARE they ruin Sherlock Holmes with this mumbo jumbo nonsense!”
I thought it was an entertaining film, certainly not straight out of the Conan Doyle novels. I think they dwelled a bit much on Holmes being a bit of a slob. Although he had his issues with keeping his place in order, he doesn’t come off as being slovenly.
I am not sure how anyone gets a gay-love element out of Sherlock Holmes but who knows what people can concoct these days.
