Sherlock Holmes Movie

This past weekend (to be more accurate sunday, 24th January) I accompanied my parents in a trip to the movies, and took it upon myself to finally see the Sherlock Holmes movie.

At first I was ceptical of the movie, anxious, and with negative expectations. But I eventually surrendered to Robert Downey Jr.'s expertise in portraying Holmes.

English gentleman, eccentric man, exquisite violin player, witty remarker, and world's greatest detective and analytical mind. That is the Sherlock Holmes we all know and love. The first thing that will jump out to fans of Sir Athur Conan Doyle's books is undoubtfully Holmes himself. The Holmes in the movie comes off as an extremely quirky and witty individual with 'unique' social skills and distinct boldness and rashness. Well, rashness is not exactly the word, since he plans out everything he does before putting it in motion. Except it involves Irene Addler that is.

This particular incarnation of Holmes had much more emphasis on his eccentric personality and unsocial behavior, give birth to a very memorable character. Downey Jr managed to act him out perfectly, revolutionating the original character.

Holmes and Watson

Now Watson, he was portrayed as accurately to the original character as possible. His characteristics of gambling, and his deadpan snarker behavior towards Holmes made him a very memorable character. The film also showed Watson and Holmes' friendship really well. It made Watson a perfect companion for Holmes, with features that counterbalance his. All the other characters were mostly well portrayed, but the one that should've been most carefully planned was the one that I felt more lacking. Lord Blackwood was a plain villain. Sure, he had the whole "evil mastermind and creepy cryptic speech with obscure references" thing going on, but felt very chromatic compared to any of the others. Even Addler. Though his end was very fitting.

The movie itself was very well written, and the scenes when we could see Holmes' martial prowess were amazing. We also got to see his deductive genius in great edge. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, and the ending adressed one particular case that was bugging me since the beggining of the movie.

Addler is only in London because she was hired by an unnamed individual. In the climax we finally learn that his plot was actually to just steal a piece of the machine that was the core of Blackwood's plan. This unseen adversary worked behind the scenes during most of the movie actually manipulated Holmes and company, exploiting Blackwood's scheme at the same time to get what he wanted. To those who payed attention, he was most likely more of a villain than Blackwood. He came off as the single most interesting character of the film to me, despite only have a few lines and his face remaining unseen. His name: Professor Moriatry.

In the original books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Moriatry was widely accepted as being Holmes' arch-enemy and the only person whose intellect was comparable, or even superior, to Holmes', leading criminal organizations and pulling strings behind the scenes in the books where he starred. Since the movie clearly establishes that Holmes accepts the challenge of catching him, we can only hope he shows up in a possible sequel.

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"He is as brilliant as you and infinitely more devious." Irene Addler, to Sherlock Holmes, about Moriatry