Sherlock Reborn

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2011)

Sherlock Holmes is the ideal problem solver. We have been brought many different versions of Holmes over the decades and he has been reinvented in television and film over and over again to the point of exhaustion. Like many great detectives, he has a keen way of doing things and how he does things are rash at times but always gets the job done. When it was first announced that Robert Downey Jr. would be playing the iconic sly detective, my response was instinctively excited, because we all had out doubts about Tony Stark and look how that turned out. Robert has a certain gift for acting that allows him to read a script and know whether he can make good use of the material and bring out the best of whoever is co- starring with him on the silver screen. Guy Ritchie who's career has had its bumps on the road gives us a stylistic, funny and adventurous Sherlock Holmes in this new adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original sketch of the man with unparalleled technique. Among all of the actors who have portrayed Holmes in the last few decades, Robert Downey Jr. is the first to really bring new light to the character and give us a side of Holmes that is true to who he is in the eyes of everyday Americans. Holmes will encounter a crime scene riddled with unseen clues to the audience's eye, but to Holmes, an entire symphony is playing in is brain as ideas and conclusions slowly twirl around his ego. While the audience is in the dark until the last scene in which all is spilt o the floor like a jug of tipped water, it's still fun to watch Robert in these scenes basking in the glory of his written genius and exposes the evil that cascades over the industrialized city. Jude Law steps into the shoes of Watson, one of the most memorable sidekicks in all of literature. Law brings spunk and truth to the character and shows the audience that despite the character not liking Holmes very much, he is still his best friend and would never leave his side even in the face of death. The friendship that builds on screen no doubt never left the set as the chemistry between the two is spot on and you never doubt these two for a second. The plot of this movie isn't the best nor the worst. The plans for world domination fall into the hands of Mark Strong and a machine that isn't foreign to us in our day and age of technology, but still manages to keep us on the track to a sequel that will more or less be better and upscale the first one. Amy Adams plays a dangerous/mysterious love interest to Holmes who knows him quite well and has no problem in outsmarting him in the simplest of ways yet still slinking to the role of damsel in distress in the last half hour. We also get some pretty brutish fist scenes that incorporate a bit of pre planning with the wit of Holmes and some slow motion that without Snyder's hand at directing feels a bit unneeded, yet satisfyingly shows off Sherlocks hand to hand skills in an over dramatized manner. I own this on blu-ray and yet I can't say that everyone will like this or accept this I guess as a true Sherlock Holmes adaption true to the original scripture translated to script. But I can say, that for those who do like the detective and want to see Sherlock in a new light, that this is definitely worth checking out.