Respond/React: Sherlock Holmes
The main struggle when writing any mystery, especially one featuring the outstanding mind of Sherlock Holmes, is finding the perfect pace. The audience needs to be a step behind the hero but still in step enough to understand what is going on. Sadly, Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is overlong and the pacing undermines what could have been a wildly entertaining film.
The performance in Holmes are top notch. Robert Downey Jr. is stellar and Jude Law gives a performance that should remind people why he was such a hot property a few years back. Mark Strong also continues his streak of strong supporting roles that will likely be overlooked.
As for the pacing, Holmes has too many action scenes. While not all of them are gratuitous, the film would have been better off with less of a physical chase and more of a mental challenge. In fact, this film completely lacks any trace of a whodunnit and the howdunnit doesn't play a major role in the ending. It's all just a chase to catch Lord Blackwood with some interesting questions thrown in.
I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes so I liked this film, regardless of its structual flaws, but midway through the film I found myself wanting to go and watch the superior (and very similar) "Young Sherlock Holmes". (And it may be no small coincidence that the next role that I ever saw the kid who played Young Sherlock was as a bit player in Ritchie's "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels".
Continue reading for more specific and spoiler-filled reaction.
The biggest flaw with Sherlock Holmes is that at no point is solving the mystery the key to ending the conflict. Holmes basically just needed to apprehend Blackwood. In a better film, Holmes could have captured Blackwood but he was set free but fearful citizens who think that Blackwood does control the dark arts. THEN, Holmes would have to disprove the magic in order to put the case to bed.
Another example of the shortcomings of this film was the complete and utter lack of a red herring. I guess you could say that the Moriarty character was one but, as I mentioned earlier, the film's pacing was so slow that eventually I figured that out. Yet another example of the poorly plotted out story is the issue with the cross which pointed out the killings. This could have been an interesting piece of evidence, a sort of riddle that needed to be deciphered. Sadly, we weren't really even given any real piece of the riddle until Holmes was busy explaining how he solved it.
The initial action beat was interesting but it didn't really add much. In fact, I thought most of the action scenes were a bit tedious and really seemed to lack any stakes - it's not like they were going to kill off Holmes or Watson. While I do consider myself a fan of Guy Ritchie's work, I'd have to say that it would be better for the franchise if he was replaced. The whodunnit angle of Rock 'n' Rolla was fairly weak and as I've stated ad nauseum, it was completely lacking in this film.
Thankfully, Downey Jr. and Law carried the movie and made it very entertaining but they deserved a better mystery and a steadier pace. It's nice to have Sherlock Holmes back but I hope that they raise the bar the next time out.
