Review:
Sherlock Holmes; It's elementary my dear readers

Sherlock Holmes is an iconic character that I’ve always respected. Maybe it’s that he’s a thinking man’s hero, or maybe it’s that he makes everything seem so elementary, but something about this quiet British hero has been lent a level of immortality that continues to this day with Guy Ritchie’s rendition.

There’s no mistaking this movie to be anything other than what it is. Even from the trailers you know what to expect from this movie. Lots of balls to the walls action, and pretty explosions. As a mindless action flick it almost succeeds. The largest problem is that it isn’t mindless. I found myself caught horribly between wanting to turn off my brain so I could enjoy the silliness of the movie, but having to leave it turned on because the dialogue is so fast and witty that were you not to pay complete attention you’d be bound to miss something.

Before watching this I watched Live Free or Die Hard, a great and far better action film. The way it succeeds is its roller coaster nature. It locks you in and pulls you along for a ride of your life. This movie however has you running at its side, and if you can’t keep up, then you’ll be lost. Never throughout watching the movie did I feel completely engaged, even despite a consistent level of entertainment. The final product left me feeling very unfilled.

Much of the film doesn’t feel much like a Sherlock Holmes story. Sure Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic. In fact, were he not in it, I imagine I’d dislike the film all the more. As with its smart and dumb conflict, the conflict of both finding Downey’s performance to be energetic in a movie that felt stiff was just another conflict to increase the throbbing headache that became notorious with this movie. The whole movie I found myself both laughing at the jokes, and rooting for the heroes, as well as staring at the door and wondering when the movie would end. Never have I felt so conflicted.

Rachel MacAdams was extremely hot as…well, like any attractive girl, I can’t remember her name. But she was very attractive, and that’s really all you need to know. As for Jude Law, he is great in his role as Watson, the straight man who’s clearly gotten tired of Holmes’ eccentricities.