Nice Updating of the Famous Character

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2010)

Sherlock Holmes (2009)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Updated version features Robert Downey, Jr. in the role of Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as his best friend and assistant Dr. Watson. In the film, a man (Mark Strong) dealing in black magic is hung and pronounced dead but soon he rises from the grave with plans that will change the world. Holmes and Watson are on the case along with an old flame (Rachel McAdams) of Holmes'. The character of Holmes has gone through so many changes since the silent days that there's no question people are going to have their own opinion on what the character should or shouldn't be. I personally thought this updated version was pretty good and it at least delivered a character that we haven't seen in any of the dozens of previous films. I enjoyed the visual style that Ritchie brought to the film and I think for the most part he nailed the atmosphere. In a lot of these recent movies that take place in the past, it seems like we just get CGI and no atmosphere but that wasn't the case here. The dark and gloomy look of the film is like something we would have seen from the Universal series of the 40s and that is a plus. There are a couple major problems with the film and the first being the running time. I'm really not sure why so many movies need to run over two-hours these days but a good fifteen-minutes or so could have been trimmed here and we wouldn't have lost anything. Another problem is that the actual story takes a back seat to the visuals, fast editing and loud sound effects. The case involving this man coming back to life was very interesting and when the film centers on this is works very well. The problem is that we get so many distractions that don't work like Watson's upcoming marriage. This woman plot never works and I'd say nothing with McAdams character works either. There's no question she's a fine actress but her role here was pretty worthless. I think Law works out very good as Watson as he has the ability to fit into the character good enough for us to believe he's this smart guy. Downey also manages to fit into the role quite nicely and I think the two men share some good chemistry together and help keep the film moving a lot better than it probably should have. For my money it's Strong who steals the show as the bad guy.