I watched the Sherlock Holmes reboot. It is a movie that
provides solid entertainment; a dark mystery, fantastic London scenery
and a good 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 Hollywood macho bullshit, which is especially hard
to stand. Holmes even has a woman 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 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... 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 today in a single volume, my
edition is The Complete Stories, and they are also available
on-line
at Project
Gutenberg.