Sherlock Holmes - The end?

First things first..... I loved the movie.

For all the fans of the detective from Arthur Canon Doyle's  book, this version of Holmes is blasphemous.
For all those who got the first taste of the great detective after watching the first installment, this movie is one hell of a joyride...
Take your pick.



For the original Sherlock Holmes fans....
Sherlock Holmes, the great detective, does not deduce anything in the movie. There is no mystery to solve here,no clues, no surprise elements.While the first part had not one but many puzzles to solve, this time around, the story is plain vanilla.
Here, Holmes is on a mission to stop Prof. James Moriarty from committing a dastardly act (no spoilers this time).

In the movie, Holmes is more of a brawler, master of disguise, cross-dresser & thief than a detective. There is precious little to "deduce". The script requires him to speak wittily, fire guns, run on rooftops,trains & woods and dress weirdly. He does what Ethan Hunt and James bond do (but for the dressing weirdly bit). What he does not do in the movie is not anything like what he does in the novels / stories ( 4 long & 56 short stories).

Instead of  investing more time in his characters, he chooses to invest time in the action surrounding the characters. Holmes and Watson continue from where they left off. Do not go in looking at any character development .
See how many time have I mentioned Holmes already? Agreed that this movie is about the high on spirits Holmes, but you cannot choose to give the others just pennies to play with.

For all the movie fans......

My appetite for big budget actioners just got bigger. This movie celebrates the action movie genre like no other. Holmes and the rest indulge in some splendidly choreographed action sequences that are as original as they come.The explosions, hand combats, gunfire, chase sequences are explosive, literally. Guy Ritchie seems to be besotted with his freeze frame technique and he gets Holmes to do it about 5 times in the movie. Not that we are complaining.

Downey Jr yet again turns up to impress. Playing this kind of a character (sometimes he slips into his Tony Stark mode) seems to have become a nice habit. He is equally effortless with the action sequences, as he is with his lines.
The rest of the cast, including the famed nemesis, play second fiddle to Downey Jr. Either they are given very little in terms of action or their lines are not as catchy as the ones that the leading man gets.

The second aspect that makes the movie immensely enjoyable is the music score by Hans Zimmer (The guy behind classics like Gladiator, Inception, The Lion King, Hannibal, Broken Arrow & many more). The music lends each scene great character.  The background score elevates the action / suspense sequence to a different level. Enough is already said and written about the theme music.

The third winsome aspect about the movie is the set direction. The art / set directors have paid huge attention to details and have re-created the era beautifully. From the Victorian era buildings, Trafalgar square, castles, roads, everything is top notch. The chess board motif runs through out the movie in either actual chess boards or floors with black & white checkered squares.

The cinematography, editing and CGI are all first rate. They further push the envelope as far as action movies are concerned. The action sequence in the train and the woods have been beautifully rendered on screen. Each explosion, each gunfire, each splinter looks spectacular.

So, did the movie win my vote? Yes it did. I did not have trouble finishing my tub of cheese-caramel pop-corn. The movie moves along in such blistering pace that, you tend to forgo most of the factual errors that the script has.
Nonetheless, it succeeds in having you spellbound and speechless in equal measure.
The first film of the year (technically last year) was worth the watch.
Hope 2012 throws up greater movies.   

Sherlock Holmes - A childhood hero makes a comeback

I was given a copy (I choose to call it that now, but way back, it was the thickest book I had ever held) of Sherlock Holmes – A study in Scarlet, during my 8^th standard Summer vacations. “Why don’t you do something useful?”, my grandma asked. I was the black sheep in the big tambrahm (Tamil –Brahmin, for the uninitiated) family who flunked in mathematics and did not touch books until he was 13!!

The book was supposed to be my birthday present. My appa, amma and uncle looked at me expectedly, looking for a trace of delight on my face. I beamed with joy(it was fake, of course). The little bird is finally taking flight, my dad would have thought. All I had in mind was cricket and meeting the girl next door at 5 in the evening.

The birthday went, my friend, Kapil, went away to Bombay for vacations and I learnt that the girl next door had a crush on some weirdo from the next compound ( well, that’s what I thought of him then).

I was not left with too many choices. So with a heavy heart, I pulled out my birthday present from the darkest corner of my cupboard.  Little did I know that this would suck me into a vortex of literature that would hold me captive forever!

Hold on, this is not about my shenanigans as a kid or my love for books. This is about the greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, one has ever read about, probably [ Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock’s brother) and Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie’s greatest creation) come a close second & third].

At 13, I idolized Sherlock Holmes. He was a hero, though he was a miserable, irresponsible drug addict, who would insult his best friend, experiment on his dog and was a brawler who practiced martial arts.

These are traits that a teenybopper would love. But what was it that made him so awesome? Irresistible? Great?

With his study of Science at university, keen mind and powers of observation, Holmes employed a process of deductive reasoning in his work, with great success. He went about his work with amazing callousness, yet “observed” things and events, most others would dismiss as trivial.

He could walk away from the gravest of situations  by turning on his charm (as per his whims and fancies). The detective with the deerstalker cap could solve cases with such ease, constantly embarrassing the London police department.

As time passed, I moved on from Arthur Conan Doyle to John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer, Ken Follet & Lee Child and characters like Kane & Abel, Jack Reacher etc made me wade through my troubled existence in School & college. Had I forgotten Sherlock Holmes? No , I had not, but fascination for the Holmes kind of died with age.

At this point, you may wonder (rightfully), why am I writing this? Well, it is because a week from now, on the 29^th of Dec, Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes – Games of shadows makes it to the large screens in India. Memories from the novels / short stories and the hugely successful 2009 movie came flooding back.

Do Guy Ritchie and Sherlock Holmes fit? Why, it’s elementary, (as the great man would himself say) dear friends. History tells us that great literature may not necessarily translate into great cinema, but I tell you that great literature in the right hands, makes for some awesome experience.

In Guy Ritchie’s movie, Holmes is an avid boxer, a martial artist, a dabbler in many sciences, and a master of disguise. Most importantly, he is an expert in logic and deduction. His version in more swashbuckling, more thrilling and more edgy than the stories / novels but that does not make it any less faithful to the original. Ritchie's directorial style also comes through, from the dark, grimy Victorian- London production values to the violent boxing and martial arts matches.       

Robert Downey Jr. is right at home in the role of the infamous detective. Swapping out futuristic armor for a pipe and fiddle, he plays another character with the wit and confidence of his Tony Stark persona in 'Iron Man.' He brings quick-wit, cunning, and a scruffy toughness to a role long seen as stuffy and dry. He is ably supported by Jude Law. He brings in distinguished charm that, at times, spills over into testy aggressiveness. Both toss off the one-liners with ease. They take top honors, arguing like an old married couple while deep down knowing that they'd be lost without each other.

The direction is great, the locations are likewise smart, the costumes are admirable, and the effects are gritty, proving to be another benefit of having a director like Ritchie at helm. The musical score is supplemental to the frantic convolutions of the film's earlier scenes, providing a spirited tune that rides the energy of fiddling and poses as anything but generic.

 

 

With so many positives, a visit to the theatres on 29^th to witness the sequel on large screen becomes a must.

It will be interesting to be wowed by action in Victorian era just a week after Ethan Hunt pulled off the Burj Khalifa stunt. Also the fact that Holmes will be pitted against  his most feared nemesis, Prof. Moriarty makes this movie an interesting prospect.

Here is hoping to see off 2011 on a high.

Over to you guys………