Holmes, Sherlock Holmes

I am still sick and my nose continually alters between clogging the left and right nostrils. I am not having a very good time of it. But in order to satiate you, dear readers, I present to you my review of Sherlock Holmes.

I went to see Sherlock Holmes on Tuesday with some of my friends from camp. I shuttled the four of us over to Augusta exactly on time to see the movie. Yes, exactly. The detour was an intentional endeavor for time-management, I swear.

From the previews, I was a little worried that the movie has gone too action-oriented as opposed to some good old-fashioned deductive mystery fare. But after seeing the film I can chalk up the trailer as simply doing exactly what trailers are supposed to, show the most interesting parts of the film in a teasing manner. Deductive skills are cool, but they don't make for an engaging trailer. Only when combined with the full backstory can Holmes really show his stuff.

Sherlock and Watson are breaking up their partnership after a final mystery involving a man who seems to have control of dark magic. Lord Blackwood is executed for his crimes but then rises from his grave and offers up a mystery so enticing that Watson and Holmes stick together to follow through with the case. Holmes is a hermit, hardly ever leaving his room if not on a case, and is terribly anti-social. Watson is tightly wound, and has a weakness for gambling. I liked the fact that both weren't perfect crime-solving Bond style characters, they had their faults.

Now before any Arthur Conan Doyle aficionados get all worked up about my review you should know that the only book of his I've read is The Hound of the Baskervilles, and that was at least five years ago. So I can't really tell if this film stays true to Holmes' personality and style and such. But without the influence of the books I can say that I enjoyed the Sherlock that was portrayed.

One thing that I know is similar to the books is that the mystery kept me guessing right to the very end when every tiny puzzle piece finally fell into place. Very cool film, I'm going to give it an eight out of ten. Whether you are looking for an action-flick or a "Now I get it" sort of mystery, Sherlock Holmes delivers. Go see it in theaters or wait for it on DVD. It doesn't need to be seen on the big screen like Avatar.

On a side note, did you know that Sherlock Holmes never actually says "Elementary, my dear Watson" in any of the books?

Finally, I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. The rest of the world certainly had something to say about it. I had a thought and checked Twitter.com at midnight when 2009 became 2010. I searched for the phrase "New Year" and discovered that approximately ten-thousand new tweets were being posted every minute. That is the indicator of the new decade we enter, one of mass connection and communication. What an amazing world.

Goodnight!