If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
It’s funny how it happens, when alternativo directors like Guy Ritchie get their big-budget projects, they get tame all of a sudden. Not that it’s a bad thing. When I first heard Ritchie was doing Sherlock Holmes, I though to myself that doing Holmes in “Snatch” style was a bad, bad idea. And, to my surprise, Ritchie picked the right elements that made his crazy movies so much fun, left the sarcastic, over-the-top, multi-plotting craziness aside and picked the best elements of modern action movies, mixing them into an enjoyable mix of entertainment product that has his personal flair at the same time and, more importantly, is very faithful to the Conan Doyle stories.
First, the shenanigans. It is noticeable that Ritchie used his extra budget on some toys, most notably the frequent presence of high-speed shots are notable because, as is expected, they don’t look like Bekmambetov (“Wanted”) or Wachowsky (“The Matrix”) high-speed shots, but rather like Guy Ritchie shots. And the wow-factor is really present in all these shots, explosions, etc. because they have a really raw feeling to them. Ritchie proves in this movie that he is capable of handling said budgets without problems and knows how to make things look really cool with a heavy visual effects team under his command. We knew he had it in him to make smaller efforts look cool, but handling bigger budgets is a whole different ball-game.
But with Sherlock Holmes, the story is a factor that shouldn’t be put aside for action and martial-arts sequences, because, well, he’s Sherlock friggin’ Holmes. And as much as the people who were watching with me, who didn’t know as much about the character as I did (his vices, his characteristics and, more importantly, how Doyle solved the mysteries), they were enjoying themselves all the same. For me, though, this was a visualization of a non-existing Doyle novel that was fun simply because it added elements to the world of Sherlock Holmes without ever disrespecting it. The most important aspect, mainly because most stories were narrated by Watson, is that the screenwriters managed to give Watson a stronger personality, taken out of his input in the classic stories. Watson is reluctant to follow Holmes in his endeavors, wants to get married and be normal. They love and hate each other at the same time, and while the fact that Watson felt a lot like Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon movies, I just happen to love the Murtaugh character so much that this didn’t bother me at all. Sherlock Holmes becomes, among other things, and mystery being the most relevant of them, a 19th century buddy-cop action-comedy with a despicable villain who was invented for the movie, but an ubervillain from the Doyle classics that promises to spice up the inevitable sequels.
In the end, “Sherlock Holmes” is a very enjoyable movie that is not unforgettable in any way, but delivers two hours of fun for those who read every single novel, or those who just hear the name Sherlock Holmes once or twice in their lives.
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