The new Sherlock Holmes movie - Your thoughts?

[Snake]

I'll be honest right off by saying I really do not know much about Sherlock holmes and his cases/stories. I've never played any of the games, which I would like to at some point. I have, though, seen a handful of episodes on TV with my Grandmother years ago.

From what I'm getting out of the trailers, it's seems to me they've turned him into some sort of martial arts wielding action hero.

Any thoughts from Sherlock Holmes fans?

[Calin Leafshade]

Meh, sherlock holmes is about intellect and i think they have stripped that away from it.

Sherlock holmes was never about action.. Its like having a kung fu Doctor Who.. it just doesnt fit.

[Ali]

I'd stay away from the games, at least the Case of the Pearl Earring. Really dreadful puzzles, gameplay and storytelling.
The film looks even worse, based upon the posters and the director.

The only book I've read is the Sign of Four, which I very much enjoyed and would make excellent christmas reading.

[Babar]

Wasn't Sherlock Holmes (in the books) a master of pugilism, some sort of weird cane-fighting and a good shot to boot?

This is the first I've heard of a Sherlock Holmes movie, but hey, I'll probably watch it eventually.

[Snake]

Good, so far I'm with all of you. I hate how they take something good and think they have to change it all up to be excepted.

[Anian]

Never really read the novels/stories, but I watched a bunch of tv series and movies. I don't like the previous work of some of the screenplay writers on this project, but it has Guy Ritchie directing it and Downey acting as Sherlock and I'm sold. It's probably not going to be very "brainy" or original (though if it suprises me, great) but it's visually cool, characters look cool and I'm sure my expectations will be met and if they're surpassed all the better.

Definetly set up at not expecting a detective story but an action comedy - it doesn't take itself so seriuosly and it puts it's own little twist on SH mythos. Think of it as an alternative summer blockbuster and I think you won't be disappointed.

[Andail]

Actually, it wasn't rare in the novels that Sherlock fought his enemies with his fists. I remember distinctly that he was described as a formidable boxer on one occasion

[GarageGothic]

I'm just hoping that the trailer was cut together to grab the attention of those audience segments who wouldn't normally go see a Sherlock Holmes movie. It sure seems like they picked every action-packed scene of the movie and stuffed it all into the trailer, but If the majority of the film is like that, I have absolutely no desire to see it.

I don't believe action and Sherlock Holmes is necessarily incongruous - I still think Young Sherlock Holmes is a terrific adventure movie, and it manages to retain plenty of Holmesian spirit. And I understand why it's necessary to widen the scope and add something more cinematic that Holmes discovering clues and interrogating suspects - otherwise it would be like watching CSI or House on the big screen, kind of pointless. It's perfectly alright to try to update a character and make him more appealing to the times - compare the development of the James Bond character - and the filmmakers don't try to conceal that this is a re-envisioning.

To be honest, I couldn't care less if they get the characters wrong. Unlike something like Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or From Hell, which once bollocksed up will never get a second shot at a movie version, there are hundreds of Holmes films and there will be more. If the film is successful, lots of kids will discover Holmes through it and then read the books and watch other - possibly better - film and TV versions. What would piss me off however, is if the film fails even as an action movie - and judging by the trailer, it's not a that great one. The legacy of Conan Doyle deserves better than being remembered as a piece of crap copy of Shanghai Knights (which, looking at the trailer, had much better fights than this movie).

[Stupot]

I'd stay away from the games, at least the Case of the Pearl Earring.

Try Sherlock Holmes Vs Jack the Ripper... fair enough I've only played the Demo.. but krikey, what a demo!  I do intend on buyign the full game at some point.

As for the movie, I'm not too fussed that they've put some action into it... I'm just fussed that Robert Downy Jr, rather than playing this uniquely recognisable icon of fiction, he seems to be playing the same character he always plays.

Still, I wouldn't mind watching it.

[GarageGothic]

Try Sherlock Holmes Vs Jack the Ripper... fair enough I've only played the Demo.. but krikey, what a demo!  I do intend on buyign the full game at some point.

Yeah, that was a pretty decent game. Despite too many fetch quests and a few favors you had to do the NPCs that seemed below Holmes' dignity, the first person Holmes games are generally quite true to the books and pretty innovative in gameplay terms. I especially enjoyed the scenes where you had to re-enact the murders or place events on a timeline. Sure, below the surface they are pretty standard logic puzzles, but the way they were staged really made me feel like I was solving a crime. One puzzle that springs to mind, despite the implementation being far from perfect, is the scene where Holmes identifies the murder weapon by trying different types of knives out on pig's heads. A lot of other commercial adventures could learn a lot from this (I'm amazed how many games fail to take advantage of cool and original gameplay elements that are suggested by the story or characters, e.g. criminal profiling in Still Life, and instead favor old school inventory puzzles and fetch quests).

The one thing I didn't like about Holmes vs. The Ripper was that the main Whitechapel area seemed awfully generic (most of the character models are also reused from the two previous Holmes games). Everything else seems so carefully researched and those who have studied the Ripper murders will find that most of the facts are more or less accurate. I'm really curious how they recreate most of the murder sites in perfect detail but fail to use obvious landmarks like Christ Church Spitalsfield and the Ten Bell's pub. Their solution to the murders was also pretty good, less spectacular than Alan Moore's version, but nevertheless felt plausible without being mundane.

Sorry to ramble on, I just realized that the game made more of an impression on me than I realized at the time of playing it

[Lamak]

I'm curious about the movie. I'm not a Guy Ritchie fan (I enjoyed Snatch and Lock, Stock,.. but I'm not too crazy about them either) and the trailer looks huh... It just doesn't look like Sherlock Holmes at all. BUT, why not ?

It raises that question : Do adaptations have to be 100% accurate ?

(side note : A lot of people complain about the lack of fidelity to the original matter, but most of the time, those same people do not even know that Sherlock was a drug addict for example)

Sometimes, some elements just do not work in a movie. Holmes solves a lot of cases only by sitting on his bed, smoking or doing drugs.

I'm not saying adaptations should be totally different, but still, I think that a movie should be independant from the original source (Sorry about my terrible english  )

(After that, it raises another question : Why do they have to name it after the original source then ? They could have created a new character in the same context, with lots of references, etc. That's another debate, I guess)

(Sorry again, I hope you'll understand what I wrote  )

[discordance]

I love Sherlock Holmes. I've read all four of the books and all fifty or whatever of the stories. And I really dig the new look they have going here. One grows a bit tired of seeing the same tall skinny guy in the deerstalker!

If it turns out to be entirely action I'll be pretty disappointed, but I'm hoping there's enough original Holmesian canon in there to get my mystery loving blood pumping.

[InCreator]

Sherlock Holmes is a good boxer and cane fighter. Also, carries a revolver.
Kicks and window diving aside, that's all I saw in the trailer, so it's true to the story.

What I think is that they will still probably stray too far from intellect and deduction stuff, but there's a good part - that other side is Indiana Jones' side, which isn't worse really. Explosions WITH brains. Just not true to Sherlock Holmes stories, but as entertaining.

And yeah, I wouldn't want to see my hero injecting heroin (which he really did in books at some period) so adaptions should be selective at some amount.

Well, for games and novels - books rock and games not so much. Usually, I feel opposite, but not with Sherlock Holmes. I've played three new games (and two old) and every one of them gets boring at some point. "Case of serrated scalpel" is best game in series IMO. Also, novels are shorter and more action packed than games and you don't have to pixel hunt anything nor play every damn classic puzzle minigame...

See movie, read books, but play games only if you want more.
Also, it's hard to pick up and imagine characters as English, but Soviet-time (80s) russian TV movies of SH are actually quite watchable. Since russians avoid courts and bullshit - as with all russian movies/series, it's on youtube.  

[Wonkyth]

I hate Mr. Holmes with a passion.
He's a stuck-up jerk who spends more time getting high and playing the violin than using that stupidly good intellect of his.
I've read four of the books, and except that he solves various cases, I really don't see why people like him so much.
He's an arse!

[Anian]

(After that, it raises another question : Why do they have to name it after the original source then ? They could have created a new character in the same context, with lots of references, etc. That's another debate, I guess)

Because same people complaining in this topic how this movie is not original to the source would be the same people talking about how they ripped off SH with the cane fighting, heroin addiction, boxing, London in the 19th century etc.
I think it might be better this way, although the best way would be to come up with an inspiried by but original character and make an effort in writing, for example the first Indiana Jones movie - not quite an original character but they made it cool and original enough to be great on it's own.

[bicilotti]

And yeah, I wouldn't want to see my hero injecting heroin (which he really did in books at some period) so adaptions should be selective at some amount.

Minor slip, it was cocaine (even though Holmes on heroine should be fun too. Heroine doesn't go with... well, with doing pretty much everything else, though).

I enjoyed Conan Doyle very much in my youth and I'm quite interested in the movie adaption. I'll give this one a try.

[ThreeOhFour]

Amusingly enough, I was discussing Holmes with a friend who is relatively new to the character the other week and accidentally accused him of being a heroin user as opposed to cocaine myself (which I corrected later).

I'm quite the fan, enjoyed Arthur Conan Doyle's work very much, and I wouldn't mind seeing this.

I hate Mr. Holmes with a passion.
He's a stuck-up jerk who spends more time getting high and playing the violin than using that stupidly good intellect of his.
I've read four of the books, and except that he solves various cases, I really don't see why people like him so much.
He's an arse!

Possibly because he's one of the few heroes whose strengths and weaknesses are well matched? He's a rather bipolar character at times, and I like the way this is used in the stories.

[GarageGothic]

Amusingly enough, I was discussing Holmes with a friend who is relatively new to the character the other week and accidentally accused him of being a heroin user as opposed to cocaine myself (which I corrected later).

Don't beat yourself up about it, even Conan Doyle forgot which drug Holmes was taking. In one of the stories he refers to Holmes using morphine (which is an opiate like heroin) instead of cocaine . (Arguably he could have been using both, but as bicilotti pointed out, opiates don't really sharpen the detection skills - would be fun to see a weed-smoking Holmesian detective though, a stoner version of Detective Monk).

[Snarky]

As I recall, Holmes took drugs between cases because he was bored, not in order to sharpen his wits.

Yes, I'm among those who argue that this film portrayal doesn't appear to be as far from Conan Doyle's character as many people presume, and that it looks fun besides. I'm definitely looking forward to this.

[Anian]

I hope everybody can see the obvius connection with taking drugs, brilliant mind, plays guitar etc. to dr. House and his companion dr. Watson Wilson