Guy Ritchie teams up with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law to reboot the classic tale and the end result is an entertaining and well acted effort that fails to ever really be anything but pretty good; not that there is anything wrong with that.
Instead of going straight into traditional origins and reboot territory, I think the film wisely throws us right into the fire and the potential end of an era as Sherlock Holmes trusty companion Watson is about to move on with his life and move out of the two’s flat. Holmes is a bit worked up over this and add the fact that there are no cases worthy of his skills left in London. Luckily a mysterious plot surrounding the dark and possibly sorcerer like Lord Blackwood gives Holmes something to mull over and keeps him and Watson working together for the time being. An old flame, Irene, and a crafty criminal on top of that also re-enters his life and she is working for a mysterious figure as well. All of a sudden Holmes has plenty to do and luckily for us the man stays busy.
The movie never drops a beat, moving along at a whips pace and always holding our attention. The set pieces are elaborate and plentiful with the factory explosion sequence being one of the most impressive cinematic scenes I have seen in some time. All in slow motion and staying right with the actors, this building blows up around them, pieces of rubble and flames flying into people, it was the highlight of the film. The film also does a fine job of instilling humor into most situations with great chemistry between the two leads, Downey and Law, with Downey getting a number of clever bits and lines to work with.
Ritchie’s direction is sound but far less flashy and creative than he has been in previous works. Though he does get a couple of his staples in there, like the quick flashback scene where we start after something interesting has happened and then go back to see how things work. And I will say that the film does a good job at not cheating us and the explanations that pop up a number of times in the film never feel forced, make sense, and aren’t spelling things out we could have never known but are instead enlightening us to the pieces we over looked to explain how things went down. With that said, there is a fake death or two and I can’t say I condone that, especially when said characters come out almost unscathed.
The film is a lot of fun through and through, but I will say that the finale didn’t feel terribly grand or spectacular and didn’t take the film to the next level when it needed to wow us in the end. I will say I love how they handled the fantasy elements of the picture I just wish they could have used the build up to a grander spectacle surrounding the finale. Oh well.
The acting in the film as mentioned before is quite good with Downey showing up in almost every scene in the picture. He is funny, random, and a bit loony but that allows for plenty of fun for the character and Downey to play with and keeping us viewers on our toes as we don’t know where he is going to go next. Jude Law is great as Watson as well and has a strong and commanding presence while still capturing the fun in the air and infusing it into the stricter character. The two work great together as well, bouncing off each other with ease and it is quite a shame that they aren’t on screen more often as Watson disappears for a few chunks at a time. Mark Strong is good as Blackwood but sadly doesn’t get a lot to do, though he is appropriately menacing and creepy as the presumed sorcerer. Rachel McAdams character is also a bit under used and seems a bit tacked on to the story, though it becomes clearer why she is a bit of a vague character once the ending unfolds.
In the end, Sherlock Holmes is thoroughly entertaining popcorn fun that never takes it to the next level. A sequel is almost a lock I imagine and hopefully they get Brad Pitt to come in as the new villain like the rumors are saying and the studio lets Ritchie have a bit more freedom as the film seems a bit restrained. With that said the film works very well and will not really disappoint most I imagine. Downey and Law are great together and their work alone would be worth making a sequel, but as it stands it’s a lot of fun but not the greatest thing ever but I really would like to see a sequel and see where they go.
Sherlock Holmes is a B