Dig deeper Watson!

[Matt Deckard]

The new Wild Wild West movie is coming out. What do you think? It's interesting how they've made it even more steam punk. Well... I guess there are only so many ways you can go after having a giant mechanical spider.
http://sherlockholmes2.warnerbros.com/

Yes it's a modern day interpretation, and yes it's set in the modern day, and yes it's Holmes and Watson grafted into the 2000s... my point is, it IS Holmes and Watson. If you haven't seen this series yet, you're probably still watching House and trying to look for what this series has. The soul of the books.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t4pgh

What say you?

 

[Kirk H.]

I went and saw the new Sherlock tonight. Let me just say that they took a lot and I do mean a lot of liberties with it. It was very Steam Punk to say the least. It was set in 1891 and had technology that did not come out for several more years. (1896 Broom handle Mausers, hand held machine guns, etc). They also had the characters have some interactions and eccentricities that would have Conan Doyle spinning in his grave. Not to seem like I am sitting on the fence post on this one, but if you are a true fan of the novels of Conan Doyle I think you will be sorely disappointed. However if you are a fan of Steam Punk the movie is quite entertaining. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Mr Vim]

I found the film to be faithful enough to the source material in everywhere that mattered.

Holmes is still an amazingly eccentric, anti-social mess.
Watson is a wonderful counter to that. Mary his wife is a bit modern but then again who knows.
Moriarty as by Jared (Lane Price) Harris is PHENOMENAL! He was literally seething, and then in one scene you see how twisted his character is.

And the finale? Because quite frankly the source material was say a little flat, gave justice to an amazing character that the film established. Oh it's not the literary Sherlock Holmes for certain but I feel that the literary character is a bit bland (it was written in the late 1800s) and could use something a bit of an update.

It's a movie, and I feel it did the character enough justice to suffice. Doyle brought Holmes back from the dead, an act which is bemoaned today because Hollywood always does "that." But in this case, the source material is to blame.

 

[Kirk H.]

I do agree with you on Jared Harris as Moriarty, he was brilliant and I do like the way that Watson and Holmes played off of each other, which is true to the books and not like other movies where Watson was treated as a simpleton (Rathbone/ Bruce franchise). And when you said that Mary was a bit modern, true, but Mycroft as a nudist walking around in front of Mary is just a little far fetched for me. Also the treatment that Mycroft got also made him seem a little dim witted where in the stories Sherlock refers to him be the more brilliant.

“ “Doyle brought Holmes back from the dead, an act which is bemoaned today because Hollywood always does "that." “

Doyle was all for killing Holmes off because he was wanting to try his hand at writing other types of stories (historical novels). Doyle had made plans to kill Holmes off earlier but the Strand Magazine would tell him that they had more and more requests for Holmes stories. Doyle even raised his prices hoping that would be the death knell for Holmes, but because the character was so popular his price demands were met. After Holmes and Moriarty took that plunge over the Reichenbach Falls there was such an outcry from the general public and fans about the killing of their favorite detective, that Doyle caved into pressure (He and the editors of the Strand received bags and bags of hate mail that treated them as though they killed off a National Hero as well financial temptations of more money) to bring the character back. However in the last interview Doyle gave before his death he stated “To tell the truth I am rather tired of hearing myself described as the author of Sherlock Holmes”. I think Hollywood brings things back because “Hey it made money for us once so let’s try it again” but Holmes was brought back due to the outcry of the fans.

I do enjoy Steam Punk and did find the movie entertaining, I just had to keep telling myself to let go of what I knew of the Doyle series and enjoy the movie. I do still think that the first one they did was the better one. I also think that the true Holmes purists would be disappointed just as the true Bond purist, who enjoy Flemings books but not the Bond movies are at how Bond has been updated.