Sherlock Holmes : A Review

This is one film that I highly anticipated. And I finally got to watch it.

It wasn't that great.

The story was the typical detective mystery with the legendary Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his faithful sidekick Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) tracking the so-called resurrection of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) who tried to control the world with so-called magic. Holmes' archenemy cum crush Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) was hired by a mysterious guy who lead or false lead Holmes' investigation. In the end, as predicted, the villain died, Holmes got his case solved.



The story wasn't much of a surprised to me as it was a rather faithful adaptation from Sir Canon Doyle's original in terms of the plot. The notable thing is really the way the director Guy Richie, who in my opinion, did quite a good job in bringing us a different Holmes and Watson. What we saw here was not tied to the typical English period gentleman kind of thing, but Sherlock Holmes who was quirky, disastrous, like a child where the streets was his playground. Watson, too, wasn't the faithful old worshipper of Holmes but rather a babysitter of sort.


Not to mention, both characters are insanely attractive and they fought incredibly well.


With big names like Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, I was expecting something from these actors. Especially Robert Downey Jr. who did such a splendid job in Iron Man. But, alas, I was greatly disappointed. Downey Jr.'s effort is like a failed futile effort of trying to be like Johnny Depp's Capt Jack Sparrow. Not that he is not good at acting out the effortless coincidences but it was just too much of the seen-that-done-that kind of feeling.

The relationship between Holmes and Watson was also a very weak imitation of the relationship between Dr House and Wilson. Watson assumed the role of Wilson of babysitting the troublesome Holmes, like House. And the whole Holmes trying to sabotage Watson's relationship with Mary reminded me sooo much of House trying to sabotage Wilson's relationship with Amber. Again, the seen-that-done-that feeling. Weak.


Even the soundtrack wasn't as amazing. Coming from Hans Zimmer, I was expecting something the scale of Pirates' soundtrack or Pearl Harbor quality. But I was disappointed yet again. The mindless plucking of a violin to produce weird gypsy-like supposed to be maniacal melody isn't melodious at all. I cannot help but to notice the lack of originality in the scores. It was just the same tracks playing over and over again.


And Irene Adler was supposed to be the only woman who outsmarted Holmes, twice.
Why is it that in this movie, Adler was like this stupid woman who got tricked by the bad guys more than once and always the damsel in distress?



Ratings : 6/10. Lack of originality in creative direction. A plot with virtually no surprises which resulted in a BORING movie.

PS : Glad we watched Dr. Parnassus instead of this one. At least Dr. Parnassus didn't suck.