Awesome but sadly falls short in a few areas

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2011)

Sherlock Holmes was one of my most anticipated movies from 2009. The story begins with Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey JR.) thwarting a masked demonic worshiping crook known as Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). Lord Blackwood is put in prison until his execution. He is hung for his crimes of black magic. After he is presumed dead he is of course buried. Not long after, Blackwood has miraculously risen from the dead to complete his master plan of world domination using his dark demonic powers. This all sets up for a good story but story is my biggest issue with this film.
The directing is fairly good, so well done on the part of Guy Ritchie. He manages to make very well done scenes complete with Holme's witty dialogue. Another place where this movie hits a home run is in fact the duologue. Sherlock Holmes is very witty and even condescending at times but it all fits the character quite well. This also applies to his sidekick and brother Dr. Watson (Jude Law). I love the visuals of this movie, i love the dialogue and directing, and the idea is quite good. There are a few flaws in the story which actually hurt the film quite a bit.
My main gripe is that at times i was completely lost. For the first 3/4 of the movie it seemed as though nothing made sense. It is not until later in the movie where you are shown what everything you have been seeing means. So much happens throughout the movie but you just are not shown how it adds up. I feel like the movie would have benefited quite a bit from allowing us inside the head of Sherlock Holmes more. It would have been fun to try and solve the mystery with him. With mystery movies i want to either try to solve the case or at least know what the main character is thinking. Once you are shown what everything means the movie becomes a lot better. It seems like the plot was simply lagging behind the rest of the movie. It wasn't entirely clear what was happening until the end and that's where the film falls short. I was sadly disappointed with the story telling. A movie with such good dialogue and characters should have been a lot more entertaining than it was.
My overall rating is a 7 out of 10 Pros: Directing,Witty Dialogue,Visuals Cons: Confusing and a lack of engagement with story telling.