Victorian Buddy Comedy

Rating: 7/10 (23 January 2010)

In recent times films set in the Victorian Era have become more popular, examples being Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and The Prestige. Sherlock Holmes has been big property over the years, from novels and short stories, to film and TV programmes. Even when Sherlock Holmes was in it's cinematic hiatus, there was still TV movies and programmes, and Holmes has always been in the public consciousness. Warner Brothers has had great success with franchises like Harry Potter and Batman, and obviously want to continue with more established material. It has also become more popular to reboot franchise because of the success of Batman and James Bond.
In Victorian London Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) prevent the murder of a young woman by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a Occultist responsible for four other murders. He is sentenced to be death. In the midst of all this Watson has found love with Mary (Kelly Reilly), and plans to move out, much to Holmes' distress. They take a hiatus in crime solving, with Holmes continuing with their experiments. But the pair are thrown back into the case when Lord Blackwood seems to have risen from the grave. This becomes a threat to Watson's reputation who declared the man dead, and could lead to a revolt by Blackwood's followers. Holmes is also brought back into contact with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), an American theft, who he loves, and the only person to best him. She ask for his help, to find a man, a scientist. Holmes quickly finds out that this is linked to Blackwood and his people. He is thrown in even deeper when a secret society, whom leaders include the Home Secretary, the American Ambassador and a senior Judge. They want to stop Blackwood, who plays to murder to make himself more powerful.
The aim of the reboot is to try and bring Sherlock Holmes to a younger audience. They want to take away all Holmes clichés like the Deerstalker Hat and Watson as a bumbling fool. Holmes becomes a man who gets very involved in action, and shows he is an inventor. It is meant to be closer to the books by Arthur Coyle Doyle: I don't know if it's true because I haven't read them. This version of Sherlock Holmes was made as an action/comedy, namely a buddy comedy. They are some decent action scenes, but some were over edited. There was also some psychical comedy, but the best comedy came from the buddy relationship between the two lead characters. Holmes and Watson are basically an old married couple, bickering throughout, but do respect each other and need each other. There are chalk and cheese, both be very different. The dialogue was key and I'm sure Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie had a hand in it.
The best member of the cast was Jude Law, which is surprising. Watson is made into a straight, tough war veteran, who shows to be intelligent and has skills as a detective. He is a loyal friend to Holmes despite everything he has done. Downey is decent, and he obviously play the character against type. He gives the character a comic edge but shows that he is able to think ahead and sees clues that no ones else does. Mark Strong is a top actor, who has worked with Ritchie before; and makes an excellent villain. However he isn't given enough screen time. Rachel McAdams in 2009 has become a big star, staring in State of Play, The Time Travelling Wife and of course Sherlock Holmes. She is obviously an attractive woman and has a future ahead of her, but I thought her performance was lacking.
After the success of Lock, Stock and Snatch Guy Ritchie career was seeming to heading for great things, but ends up torching himself when marrying Madonna, and making two massive floats. Divorcing Madonna was the wisest thing he did, having a partial return to form with Rocknrolla, and now he has finally done his first blockbuster. He injects energy into the action scenes, adds wit, and because of the setting there is no mockery gangsterism. He brings in his own style, I thought the slow motion bits surprisingly worked, and the flashbacks and showing of clues reminded me of his previous films.
The problem with the film is the script. One of the writers was Simon Kinberg, who is one of the worst writers in Hollywood, having written XXX 2, X-Men 3 and Jumper and acted as a script doctor to Charlie Angels 2 and Fantastic Four (hardly a good CV). His aim is focus on action and not on plot. At least he was working on a screenplay already written by others first. This was written as a action film, when it should have been written as a detective film with action in it. The focus should have been the case. The plot itself isn't anything inspired and more thought should have been used to make it a tighter story. It was just a series of events leading to action sequences. The revelation at the end which is meant to lead to the sequel also felt a bit too forced. Hopefully the sequel will have better writers. The film also felt longer then 2 hours and dragged in places, especially in the beginning. Never a good sign.
Overall, fairly enjoyable. I give it a 7.3 overall. I liked the dog in the film as well.