A good way to ruin a good character

Rating: 3/10 (7 January 2016)

It's fair to say that Sherlock Holmes is one of my favourite characters in all of fiction. The detective stories in which he features haven't dated one bit in the 120 or so years since they were first written, and they remain fresh and crackling with wit and energy even today. Sadly, this big bucks adaptation of the Holmes canon has absolutely nothing to do with the stories. Instead, the approach is of the typically soulless Hollywood blockbuster, i.e. this a film filled with snappy one liners and extensive CGI action scenes. With Robert Downey Jr. playing the titular sleuth, this is more of a Victorian IRON MAN than it is anything approaching Holmes. Even BBC's RIPPER STREET is closer to the material than this.
SHERLOCK HOLMES is a pretty but uninteresting movie which is interchangeable with the plot of a dozen others. It's a little like the less-than-impressive Jackie Chan vehicle SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, except made with a larger budget. Downey Jr. appears to be channelling the kooky spirit of Johnny Depp rather than the likes of Rathbone or Brett, and Jude Law is the only one who halfway convinces as a youthful Watson. The worst acting award goes to Rachel McAdams, completely out of her depth.
The plot is a nonsensical bit of fluff even worse than the one in THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Mark Strong is some black magician who seems to have wandered in from a low budget fantasy flick and the boring action scenes are full of all the soul-crushing explosions and CGI scenery flying about that you'd expect; the green screen climax is particularly poor. Consider this another misfire from Guy Ritchie, whose debut double-whammy of LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS and SNATCH remain the only decent films of his career.