In Name Only

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2012)

I suppose I'll sound like a broken record. I enjoyed this movie, but, like the first, I almost never think of it as a Sherlock Holmes film. If Indiana Jones were to be transferred into Robert Downey's body, it wouldn't make any difference. Because of the name recognition, many entities are capitalizing on the Holmes name. Making him a quirky indecipherable enigma, or making his partner a woman named Watson who is of Asian descent. These are certainly interesting but so far removed from the Holmes mythos that it does nothing for me. This is a wild adventure with lots of twists and turns, leading to some really dramatic moments; but it's also so full of contrivances that I have to suspend so much disbelief. People just know things without the ratiocination that was the whole of the original character. We could use a dose of that in any new Holmes incarnation which would really substantiate the character.