Blackwood’s organization, a Masonic-like cult with members in high places, also prefigures fascist iconography in terms of greatcoat design, hair stylings and expressive scowling, so at least sartorially, its members have a distinct edge on the disheveled Holmes. Unfortunately for Holmes, Watson and the other citizens of London, Blackwood shortly resurrects himself and undertakes to establish his New Order, with part of the plan being Britain’s reconquest of that former colony across the Atlantic. Watson, now transformed into a dashing pretty boy by Jude Law. Condemned to die for the murder of several women, this self-possessed practitioner of black magic ominously warns that, “Death is only the beginning,” as he is led to the hangman’s noose, after which he is duly pronounced dead by none other than Holmes’ sometimes partner and chronicler, Dr. Once past the nonsensically overloaded martial-artsy opening stretch, a worthy opponent to Holmes announces himself in the person of Lord Blackwood (the ever-impressive Mark Strong). But his keen eyes, quick tongue and edgy combustibility do lend credence to a man who’s able to see, anticipate and comprehend things others can’t - which, in this case, includes a slow-motion compendium of the bodily harm that awaits his opponent at fisticuffs. Distractingly, for the time period, he sports a wild-haired, stubbled look that makes him resemble Al Pacino’s kid brother, and there are times when his well-accented Britspeak reaches such basso depths that his dialogue can’t be fully understood. Such Holmes purists as may remain will blanch, but young audiences, particularly males, will likely swill the topped-out serving of sweaty masculinity, flexing muscle, imaginative violence, unusual weaponry, impudent banter and ballsy effrontery.Īlthough Downey’s recent ascent to action-blockbuster topliner defines the nature of this new Holmes, the thesp’s essential identity as a resourceful and vigorous character actor asserts itself up to a point. Their choice was to transform the historically slim, reclusive, intellectual eccentric into an evident manic depressive whose idea of recreation is to slum in what looks like an East End precursor of the fight club. Smith”) have gone through to refit the character to the presumed requirements of the mass international audience. Theoretically, Arthur Conan Doyle’s genius of Baker Street is as open to reinvention and reinterpretation as any character, so there is a measure of amusement to be had in observing the contortions producer Joel Silver, director Guy Ritchie and screenwriters Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham (“Invictus”) and Simon Kinberg (“Mr. Memorably played 14 times by Basil Rathbone through the ’40s, Holmes has been seen only intermittently onscreen since then, notably in Billy Wilder’s inspired but tragically truncated 1970 “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,” as well as in “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution” in 1976 and “Young Sherlock Holmes” in 1985 on British television, played by Jeremy Brett and in an animated series, voiced by Peter O’Toole.
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