Another Sherlock Holmes film and Another Missed Opportunity

Rating: 3/10 (15 December 2011)

Yes, it is time for another Holmes film. I'll speak in general terms as to why I still don't like this series so you don't have to worry about spoilers.
If there's one thing I hate it's uninspired movie making. While people can say there was large deal of inspiration in this film it was not situated on the topic I consider to be essential when making a Sherlock Holmes movie. When you put a title like Sherlock Holmes on a movie, Your talking about a famed literary character. Someone who solves crimes with a passion. The same way many of us might focus our attention on a common hobby Holmes focuses his attention tenfold on one objective: solving problems. His one goal is to collect every bit of possible evidence from a crime scene and then use his powerful deductive skills to ascertain the particulars in his investigation.
The fascination comes from his exactness. His focus and concentration on the precision of his conclusions makes him more of a computer than a man. "A calculating machine" as Watson put it, donating his whole life to putting pieces of evidence together and see what the finished product shows. An yet, through the cold nature of his personality you see a glimpses of humanity. His friendship with Watson that strikes much deeper than it appears, his love of music that shows how human he is in the presence of genuine art, and his zeal for a dramatic conclusion of triumph that was his form of art. When you look deep enough you realize his work isn't that of a computer, but that of an artist.
In the context of this perspective this movie misses on a level not seen in sometime. I understand this is just an opinion and that my opinion is worth as much as the other thousands of reviews on this website, but I truly think this movie fails to capture the spirit of the books. When Holmes and Watson communicate to each other, it resembles that of a bitter couple then that of two people who genuinely respect each other. Needlessly arguing over trivial problems that never existed in the stories and you can only find their style of arguing from a modern day bromance. Holmes is very logical, but it seems superficial and meant to be more of a hero advantage than an authentic skill of an individual. I understand there is a need for action and that Holmes was a fighter in the books, but fighting was only present when necessity called for it. Holmes's physical ability was like any other skill in his repertoire; there for the purpose of furthering progress in an investigation. In this movie, fighting takes place for the sole purpose of the excitement of a fight scene. This seems to be a reoccurring error that is present at every turn in this movie. For example, in the stories Holmes would be careless and say hurtful things because they were required to overcome an obstacle in his investigation whether listening to non-essential facts or the threat of having his plans disarranged. In this movie he was a jerk for the sake of entertainment. In the stories Holmes was cold natured because emotions corrupt his judgement and lead to illogical conclusions, I don't even need to explain how much this wasn't the case in this film.
A person I found very disappointing was Moriarty. In the short story "The Final Problem", Moriarty was supposed to be the great obstacle Holmes would overcome at the cost of his life. Doyle at the time intended this to be the last challenge for his detective and intended to be the ultimate class of intellects. Holmes in the story realizes after a series of cat and mouse mental confrontations that he must make the supreme sacrifice to rid the world of Professor Moriarty and he decides to follow through with it (or so he was meant to). The Movie completely failed at capturing a sense of this. The substance and development in this film was lacking to such a great degree it was depressing. You would think you were watching a video game storyline with the amount of effort they put into the development of the Holmes/Moriarty rivalry. We start out towards the end of their feud, this is not a problem since the story too took place towards the end showing that this isn't a fatal error. The error comes in when you consider that their rivalry is not interesting nor engaging. There is no depth to their personalities and is ultimately as engaging as two opposites confronting one another in a reality TV show. The is no authenticity to their mental struggle.
I understand I'm asking a lot for a movie to meet my specific expectations, but I believe my view is the core of many Sherlockian fans. It's not like these have to be specifically exact, but there is a need for a "ballparkish" attempt at recreating the spirit of the stories. The BBC series "Sherlock" does a decent job of this. This movie, on the other hand, seems to be a 19th century based spy movie with elements of a Michael Bay film sprinkled on top. Without the crucial character development that made the stories great, this is simply a superficial action movie with "Sherlock Holmes" as the title.