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Tomi and I were bored on Friday night so we decided to go and see Sherlock Holmes. I’d seen the trailer and was less than enthused. The reason was that it looked too far away from Doyle’s work. Too much action and not enough plot. Now I’m not Sherlock Holmes buff, I’ve read a few of the books in my day, but not enough to really love the work. But it was the only movie that really appeared worth seeing (it was that or Avatar, blegh) so we went.
Surprisingly, it was pretty good. Robert Downey Jr. did a good job playing himself with an old timey British accent. I mean lets face it, he only plays himself with varying levels of bad-assness. And Jude Law was quite entertaining as Watson. The story, while well out of the range of what Holmes would have investigated in the books, was fun though basic.
Holmes and Watson solve a series of occult murders at the beginning of the film and lock away the creepy Lord Blackwood. Several months later Blackwood is set to be hung and asks to see Holmes as his last wish. He tells Holmes and things are only going to get worse and there is nothing he can do. Blackwood swings. Or does he? No, he’s “back from the dead” and people start dying who are connected with the occult and Blackwood is trying to vest power from the government. It’s up to Holmes, and a reluctant Watson, to solve the case!
Like I said, pretty basic, but it was fun. From the trailer it looked like they really took some liberties with the setting (late Victorian Britain) but it actually wasn’t too bad. I could believe most of what was going on and the skills that Holmes employed were more or less what he used in the books. All in all I was entertained, which is all you can really ask for from a movie like this. My only real gripe with the whole thing was Rachel McAdams, she sucked. Her character was uninspired, unimportant to the plot and she did a horrible job with it.
I understand that there is going to be a sequel (what movies these days don’t spawn sequels?) which could also prove fun, but we’ll see.