I have seen the Sherlock Holmes reboot. It is a movie that
provides good entertainment; a dark mystery, solid action scenes,
fantastic London scenery and an excellent director. The plot and
characters are no different than anything else coming out of Hollywood
these days, so it is bearable... but when I combine what I just said
with the fact that the story revolves around one of my favorite
characters ever I can't but be disappointed, utterly.
Reinventing, or better said rewiring, the character is acceptable... a
darker Holmes, filthy, unshaven and manic is legitimate. But they had
to poison it with American macho bullshit, which is especially hard to
stand. Holmes even has a women in this story, he who is "not a
whole-souled admirer of womankind", that is just
preposterous. The movie ends by hinting there will be a sequel (they
will milk it dry, no doubt) and I hope it will be better than
this. But now I am certain there will never be a better Holmes than
the role played
by Jeremy
Brett in the 1984 Granada TV series. He is, and will remain
without any doubt, The Holmes.
I love that adaptation, and enjoy watching those episodes, he
adds so much to the character; the short bursts of laughter, the mood
swings and his eccentric hand gestures... Robert Downey Jr. is not
even close. Watching Jeremy Brett play is rewarding, he was Holmes,
truly living the role and completely absorbed in
it. The Wikipedia article explains it all, and sheds more
light on what became of Mr. Brett. Even though Granada filmed a lot of
episodes they did not cover all the stories. Fortunately we can get
them all for free today, on a site
like Project
Gutenberg.