Thoughts on 'Sherlock Holmes'

[indiana_j]

I finally got to see A Game of Shadows with the family yesterday and so, first, general non-spoilery impressions.

I did quite like it and I had a lot of fun but it didn't impress me as much as the first one.  I don't know what it was, there was no big one thing that stood out, but the impact was less than the first.  Still, it was rollicking and funny and, at times, emotional.  I think maybe I felt that they could have done just a little more, gone a little further, with some of their ideas and what they wanted to show us.

OTOH, watching Sherlock Holmes cling to the back of a pony was worth the price of admission.  Thoughts:



1.  There needed to have been about 100% more Lestrade.  Only one scene with my favorite inspector?  I cry foul!

2.  Mary.  Oh, Mary.  So very competent in the heat of things and a little bewildered when not - and it made sense, it really did.  She's not used to this kind of life but when she's called to action, she acts.

3.  ARGH, STEPHEN FRY, MY EYES.  (Loved him as Mycroft.)

4.  Okay, Irene.  Here's the thing.  I really did feel like it was a throw away death even though I wasn't the least bit emotionally moved by it (I love Rachel McAdams but feel that they kind of wasted the character in the first [that scene at the end of the movie of the first?  The one with the machine?  That's what I'd been wanting for the whole movie] ).  In the scheme of the whole Moriarty getting the best of Holmes, it does make sense but, sadly, it also feels like they just wanted to get her out of the movie.

5.  I rather liked Simza but really felt that this was the character that Irene could have been had they tried in the first movie.

6.  I could have done with less action scenes and more Genius scenes with Holmes, though the action scenes were fun.

7.  Holmes / Watson still continue to be awesome and this Watson is one of the best I've scene in movies.

8.  The end at the falls, oh god.  I've read the books, so I knew what was going to happen pretty much since I'd sat down in the theater.  But it was brilliant.  I loved how Moriarty could do the same thing Holmes could and the dawning realization of Holmes, Moriarty and the audience that Holmes wasn't going to win this unless he changed the nature of the game was so well done.

And the look on Holmes' face and on Watson's at that exact moment just did me in.  The ending really brought the movie together for me.


So, overall, I really enjoyed it but it needed a little bit more of what the first movie had.  I can't put a finger on it but I hope that the third movie really brings it home.

Comments

[resplendissante.livejournal.com]

I vote that the next movie is: Sherlock Holmes: DANCING LESSONS WITH WATSON. :D!

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

That was the best thing EVER. "I thought you'd never ask."

[resplendissante.livejournal.com]

Adoooorbs. <3 <3 <3 I'm not sure how it happened but suddenly I ship all the Holmeses and Watsons.

[amyamy.livejournal.com]

Oh ho. I thought you were just shipping the show. If you're shipping ALL the S/H, you need to see Katieforsythe's work. Classic S/H, and SO GOOD.

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

It didn't help that in the second movie, they really, really amped it up. Which was hilarious and awesome at the same time. The whole "Relationship?" "Very well, partnership." at the end of the train scene had me rolling.

[meallanmouse.livejournal.com]

What changed between 1 and 2, for me, was that the second movie felt like it was a Michael Bay version of Holmes (bullet time, explosions, etc). :/

(I dearly loved what they did with Mary, though. Thank heavens for that.)

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

Yeaaah, that's kind of how it was. I mean, I enjoyed the action scenes (I do love me some explosions) but considering that it was Sherlock Holmes, it felt a little too much. Though I did love when Watson manned the giant cannon o' doom...

My love for Mary knows no bounds. I loved her in the last movie and I really did love that they used her more in this one. The little smirk towards Lestrade in that one scene was just perfect.

[missbossyboots.livejournal.com]

I refuse to believe Irene's dead. I refuse.

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

It doesn't even really bother me that she's dead, it bothers me that the death was kind of meaningless and simply a way to write Irene out of the movie. They could have done in a way to make it that much more believable and have more impact.

That being said, it's pretty easy to imagine Moriarty having secreted her away - there were a lot of drugs even back then that would make someone appear as if they were dead. And having her as something to drag out in front of Holmes at a later date makes sense to me.

(I really wish I'd liked Irene more. Guy Ritchie really let me down in that regard.)

[missbossyboots.livejournal.com]

I like Irene more than I liked the gypsy lady. Whose name I can't even remember.

Irene's death was such a throwaway, which is why I just don't think it happened like that. I think Moriarty told Holmes she was dead to mess with her, and we only have his word for it that she is dead. I think there's something in Holmes smelling the hankerchief and throwing it away the way he did. I think he realises she's probably not dead either.

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

Simza. ;) My problem with Irene was with how Ritchie used her or underused her. To be fair, I don't think Simza was as well fleshed out as she could have been and, with the exception of Mary, it feels that the women of these movies just don't get the attention they deserve.

[missbossyboots.livejournal.com]

It's true, they don't. But then, basically anyone who isn't Sherlock or Watson really get any attention or development. Which makes sense in a way, but it would be nice to see the women be something other than 'useful plot devices' and discarded when done with.

[gollumgollum.livejournal.com]

I feel like the grumpy fan every time i say this, but Irene's death felt like a fridging to me. "Oh gosh, Irene Adler's head's in the refrigerator! Sherlock, how does that make you feel?!" And while i love the things that Guy Ritchie does with men (Holmes and Watson's relationship/partnership, naked!Mycroft, Handsome Bob), he's really yet to impress me with the way he thinks of women, when he bothers to think of them at all. And that's sort of the thing, right. Women always seem like something of an afterthought to Ritchie.

(Although Mary was awesome.)

Regardless, i totally agree that Irene was all but wasted in these two movies.

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

I fully think it was a throw away death but I don't know if I think it was quite fridge level. But, you know, I don't know if I'm thinking that because of my detachment from movie!Irene or what. To me, it did made some sense from a Moriarty point of view - just that how they did it was kind of lame and didn't make anywhere near the impact that it could have.

Holmes, Watson and Mary are the best characters - they could have honestly done without Irene in the first two movies and brought her in through the third and it might have gone better.