Sherlock Holmes

My family went to see the new Sherlock Holmes yesterday, which is a movie I was really looking forward to ever since the first trailer dropped. I can honestly say I was not disappointed... the movie is fun, interesting, and highly entertaining from start to finish.

Robert Downey Jr. makes a great Holmes (not that I have much frame of reference for the character). He's witty, smart, annoying, funny, slovenly, charming... the list goes on. He pulls off a kind of *damn-it-all* attitude that I see in his own personality and in his character Tony Stark from Iron Man. It seems to me that the characters he's choosing matches his Hollywood status as an actor who spent a great deal of time outside the circle and is now a bit wary of being welcomed back into it. I think it's wonderful and, in some ways, highly fortuitous that the trailer for his next movie that is sure to be a blockbuster smash, Iron Man 2, plays before Holmes in theaters.

Holmes is doing well in the box office, as far as I know - it set a Christmas Day record last weekend - so I'm guessing that this first film will be the start (or perhaps RE-start) to a franchise. I welcome this idea, and the opportunity to see Robert Downey's Holmes and Jude Law's Watson continue their banter on screen. On that note, Law's Watson was equally up to par and far from being the sidekick that he is in the books (I've just begun reading an illistrated version of all the Arthur Conan Doyle stories). Law easily keeps pace with Downey Jr., even outshining him at some parts of the film.

All in all, I thought the film did a good job handling the mystery genre. They gave you enough hints to know that Holmes was on the trail of something (a sniff here, a keen look there), but when all the pieces came together at the end, I don't think audience members felt stupid for not having figured out the case - as I've noticed I do after certain similar films. The story was engaging, the bad guy was sinister, and the damsel in distress was... well, a bit of a badass herself. Rachel McAdams was lovely as ever (that pink satin dress? damn).

The film's soundtrack is particularly worth commenting on, as it was superb. Done by Hans Zimmer, one of my all time favorite composers (The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, Lion King, etc). The music is unusual, upbeat, exciting, unnerving, quirky, adventurous... and above all, completely fitting for the film itself.

Overall, I'd recommend the film as it's just plain fun. Back to the theaters again today to see the movie Nine. Cheers :)