sherlock holmes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988045/

a cheerleader suggested that i should go see avatar. whatever, i read the screenplay a while back and was not too impressed. the trailers basically gave away the whole movie anyway. so i went to see sherlock holmes instead.

i am not what you would call a purist when it comes to the translation from book to movie, but i do think that you should maintain the core characteristics in such a translation, unless you change the names and all the characters so everybody realizes you have made a significant departure from the prior art. alas, such a departure has occurred in the new sherlock holmes film.

the movie itself is not bad, one of the better films i have seen in the theater lately. however, that is not saying a lot because the competition is chiefly from atrocities like gi joe and disappointments like 9. anyway, it is your basic action-adventure kind of film with good sets and costumes, a reasonable plot, and good chemistry between the characters. think indiana jones.

what this movie is *not* is a sherlock holmes movie. very little of the cool deductive technique that is the sherlock holmes trademark was present here, having been largely replaced with fist-fighting and explosions. i could overlook a triviality like sherlock plucking the violin instead of playing it, but making him and watson into action heros is much more of a significant shift. it actually seemed like the classic sherlock stuff was just a layer of paint over the top of the film proper. removing all that stuff, including the substory about watson and his fiancee, would have made this movie into a length more appropriate to its content.

also, sherlock's fighting style in this film is ridiculous. i daresay that a cheerleader could kick his ass, no contest.