Dec. 30th, 2009

joiedecombat: (smug)
Saw Sherlock Holmes the other day. I didn't think Robert Downey, Jr. was really a great fit for Holmes (Jeremy Brett is always the definitive Holmes in my mind) but he did all right, and Jude Law, as I'd hoped, made for a superlative Watson. Yay for hot young Watson! May the silly Nigel Bruce version and his imitators be left in a dark, dusty cabinet somewhere and never brought out again.

I enjoyed the movie, and I think it was a reasonably faithful derivation from the original source material. There are things I didn't care for (many of them, unfortunately, related to the inclusion of Irene Adler), but overall, I liked it.

...I can't help but be a little annoyed by the sheer number of people who are complaining about Holmes actually fighting, as though it's so ridiculous that no one should have ever thought of it. Because it's not like he was an amateur boxer who could have made a living at the sport if he'd wanted to, not to mention being skilled with sword, singlestick, and Japanese wrestling, and who beat the crap out of the villains of several of his stories and sometimes gloated about it afterwards, and - oh wait.

And then there's the other silly stuff that people have said that I won't go into because Someone Is Wrong On The Internet and I promised not to argue with them any more.

"Surely the [original] Holmes wasn't this much of a douche," on the other hand, was just plain amusing, especially since I've only just rewatched the Granada adaptation of "Silver Blaze" and then re-read the story... the one in which, having solved the mystery and located the stolen horse, Holmes turns to Watson and says, in essence, "Right, that's all figured out, but I really don't like our client's attitude so I'm going to jerk him around for a while. Don't say anything to him about the horse."

Anyway, as a fairly deeply-invested fan of the original books and stories, I say it's an enjoyable movie and worth seeing.

Profile

joiedecombat: (Default)
joiedecombat

August 2012

S M T W T F S
   1234
56 7 891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Mar. 28th, 2026 10:30 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios