Sherlock Holmes: Action Hero!

The title of this post pretty much brings to light one of the several things that are wrong with this film. It also reveals the sad nature of many films emerging from Hollywood these days. Okay, so they are going to make a film about Sherlock Holmes, the beloved genius detective and endearing literary figure. So, instead of banking on the traits that would already make the movie a box office draw, they feel the need to hype it up with explosions!, and fights!, and crazy feats of death-defying daring! All of the sudden, Holmes is a martial arts expert, who spends his free time prize fighting and sitting around firing his gun (not shooting up on heroin, which might have garnered an R rating). Does this make the film better, the plot juicier? No, because they turned the character into something he's not; an action hero. Not to say that Robert Downey Jr. wasn't the right man for the part, but the part wasn't the right one for the character. Another sticking point for me was the camera work in some spots, and the visuals in general. In particular, the use of a moving viewpoint in some of the transition scenes. I don't like the moving camera, because it doesn't allow your eyes to focus on any particular feature of the set, a great aide to computer generated and enhanced visuals, but annoying because you want to be able to see the great details put into the set. That brings me to their rendering of the city of London in the movie. I read in another review that "19th century London looked stunning", and well, that was the problem. 19th century London isn't supposed to look stunning, its supposed to look like crap, and when every single computer generated feature (basically everything in historically set movies these days) looks like an HDR photograph, the effect is more whimsical than realistic. Bottom line is this: the entertainment value is certainly there. The movie kept me engaged, the plot kept me guessing, and the characters and dialogue kept me laughing. My problem is that I don't think it was what a Sherlock Holmes movie should be, and therefore it doesn't strike me as an artistically relevant film. USA Today gave it 2 and 1/2 stars, and that is what I will give it as well, no less and but no more. Now, Rachel McAdams on the other hand, she's a ten!