I must share my opinion on this.  This morning’s paper featured a scathing article denouncing the new blockbuster and calling it a disgrace to Conan Doyle’s original masterpieces.  The avid Holmes fans moaned over Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of the world’s favorite sleuth and cried out about the loss of the original feel taken away from the assortment of novels and short stories.

I could not disagree more. The movie, which I saw with a group of friends for a birthday celebration (and I would have been there on time were it not for the driver in front of me who drove the speed limit all the way to the mall) and we all walked away positively raving.  The cinema was packed even three days after the film’s release that we had to sit in the front to accommodate our large number and we were on the edge of our seats for the duration of the movie.  We laughed and gasped in unison with everyone there, thoroughly enjoying the outing.  I highly recommend the movie to anyone who needs a few hours escape to 19th Century London and a good look at Jude Law.

An avid reader myself, of course I have read Sherlock Holmes and found the representations portrayed on-screen of the characters to be all accurate except for a few minor discrepancies (Holmes’s shady underground life of drinking and Watson gambling problem).  However, even these inconsistencies did not bother me in the least because it showed them to be human characters who were slightly out of touch with the rest of life because of their intelligence with problems instead of always being perfect and correct.

As far as the actual writing of the storyline, I found it to be excellent.  The writers made a very smart move by creating their own story rather than adapting one of Conan Doyle’s which would undoubtedly elicit more of an outcry from Holmes fans who decked themselves out in costume to attend the premiere (no I am not poking fun at the Harry Potter and Twilight junkies).  By setting the movie after Dr. Watson has recorded all of his wild adventures with his best friend, there is no way the writers could be accused of mangling the story.

All in all, a fine job transposing the written word to the big screen.  I would be willing to spring for another showing (but I will probably wait until it reaches the $4 theatre just because I’m unemployed at the moment).