Hmm, Sherlock Holmes, I’ve always had great expectations over novel based movies and most of the time they disappoint me. Everybody told me to watch this movie like it is some kind of “must watch” movie, but it turned out that the maximum I could give for the movie was a mere 6.5/10.

Before I start my review, I must say that I am not a fan of Sherlock Holmes, I have not read any of the books before, I only knew the title existed before and I am only giving honest review based on what I perceive the movie. One of the reason why I am giving 6.5 (instead of 7.8 at imdb) is because of the “something is missing” feeling I got after the movie.

Storyline

I learned that the storyline of the Sherlock Holmes movie has nothing to do with any of its novels. The characters were just simply taken out from the book and they invented their own storyline. In fact, the current Sherlock Holmes does not even take a magnifying glass anymore. That’s all right, given that if the storyline is interesting, which is not, so to speak.

The flow of the story is rubbish. It starts out with some action then it went all (quite) monotonous for probably one and a half hour then shot all the way to its climax and ends with another baddie coming into the picture. Typical movie, I nearly fell asleep.

However, as bad as the storyline could be, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) did a pretty good job in wrapping up the movie. Whatever that needs to be explained was explained.

Action

I am quite astonished by the fact that they came up with this very creative idea of analyzing which body points to attack, they tell you the flow of attack and how traumatized the person would be before an attack. It is like a walk through on a series of attacks, then followed by the real deal.

The magic tricks, or should I say science tricks used by the Lord Blackwood was also pretty cool. But the “Wow factor” isn’t there, probably due to the explanation given had made the magic tricks look uncool.

Humour

Throughout the movie, there were a lot of jokes … cold jokes to be exact. I laughed at a few, but most of them I just couldn’t be bothered to care. It does give us the idea that the characters are witty, but not all of the jokes are laughable.

However, do pay attention to the few that are laughable.

Actors

I have mixed feelings over whether or not Robert Downey Jr. is the right person to act Sherlock Holmes. I agree that Robert is a superb actor; his act in Iron Man is flawless. However, his British accent is down the drain. Robert’s an American, so having him to speak in British accent is like asking a bird to quack.

His role as Sherlock Holmes is perfect and he had shown the wittiness of Sherlock Holmes, but had failed terribly at his British accent.

In a Nutshell

Movie wise, it is just another 2009 movie, not as spectacular as District 9 or Avatar. It does contain its own creativity though and gets you to wonder how the magic was done. But it is just not good enough. Not to mention the movie cannot live without Robert Downey Jr. If you put him out of the picture, the movie fails entirely. On the other hand, if you put him in the picture, his British accent sucks, which is another factor why I rated the movie so low.

Choice wise, if you think your cinema does not have subtitles, spending regular ticket price on such a movie is a waste of money. If you think you can understand all kinds of accent, you might also want to think twice because the movie is not that good. If I were given the chance again, I would choose to save the money instead.

My point is, Sherlock Holmes 2009 is not a movie worth watching in the cinema.