Good take on a classic character

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2010)

Sherlock Holmes has fascinated me as a character for ages. Despite I've begun to read the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle just recently the character of Holmes has been familiar to me through movies and TV-series. Personally I don't mind variation from the source what comes to adaptations, but there's couple of things which need to be present in a Holmes story: his keen intellect, superiority over foes and of course Watson. And all these things are present as well the trait of Holmes to do first and then reveal his plan to the viewer (or reader).
So in this new version of Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey JR.) our master detective is against a conspiracy coined by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) and together with Dr. Watson (Jude Law) and Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) he must stop this seemingly supernatural fiend.
As it is with Holmes he's deeply rational man who is not fooled by mere superstition while others may be blinded with sleigh of hand. So we see him outsmarting people left and right and the story ends with a cliffhanger with the looming threat of Moriarty in the future.
Guy Ritchie has assembled a fine cast, but the structure of the movie is a bit troubled. The story begins strong and it has great scenes through out, but there are some parts in it which feel like the makers had run out of steam and ideas. At first I also did find the sound track a bit distracting, but it did start to work better towards the end. All in all Sherlock Holmes gets better towards the end, so it ended up as a pretty entertaining movie.