Revisited - Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Yes, this Revisited is late but it's not going to stop me from posting it because it's 2020 and that means new beginnings or hopefully it does. I was introduced to Sherlock Holmes when my sister showed it to me on a whim that she thought I would enjoy it. The movie was fantastic with me loving the great acting with RDJ stealing every scene he's in as well as the well balanced story that grips and takes you on a well and pleasant ride. It's a great movie that takes a different spin on Sherlock Holmes and a pleasant spin at that.

Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 period mystery action film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law portray Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson respectively. Sherlock Holmes received mostly positive critical reaction, with praise for its story, action sequences, set pieces, costume design, Hans Zimmer's musical score, and Downey's performance as the main character, winning Downey the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. The film was also nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Original Score and Best Art Direction.

In 1890 London, private detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. John Watson prevent the ritualistic murder of a woman by Lord Henry Blackwood, who has killed five other young women similarly. Inspector Lestrade and the police arrest Blackwood. Three months later, Watson is engaged to Mary Morstan and moving out of 221B Baker Street; while he enjoys their adventures together, Watson looks forward to not having to deal with Holmes' eccentricities. Meanwhile, Blackwood has been sentenced to death and requests to see Holmes, whom he warns of three more unstoppable deaths that will cause great changes to the world. Blackwood is subsequently hanged.

Holmes is visited by Irene Adler, a former adversary who asks him to find a missing man named Luke Reordan. After her departure, Holmes follows her as she meets with her secret employer, and only learns that the man is a professor and that he intimidates Adler. Meanwhile, sightings of a living Blackwood and the discovery of his destroyed tomb lead to belief that Blackwood has risen from the grave. Reordan is found dead inside Blackwood's coffin. Following a series of clues from the body, Holmes and Watson find Reordan's home and discover experiments attempting to merge science with magic.

After they survive a battle with Blackwood's men who attempt to destroy the lab, Holmes is taken to the Temple of the Four Orders, a secret magical fraternity with considerable political influence. The leaders—Lord Chief Justice Sir Thomas Rotheram, U.S. Ambassador Standish, and Home Secretary Lord Coward—ask Holmes to stop Blackwood, a former member of the society and Sir Thomas's secret illegitimate son.

That night, Sir Thomas drowns in his bath as Blackwood watches, and the next night Lord Coward calls a meeting of the Order. He nominates Blackwood to take command in place of Sir Thomas and Blackwood reveals himself to the group. Standish attempts to shoot Blackwood but bursts into flames when he pulls the trigger of his gun, and runs out a window to his death. Lord Coward issues an arrest warrant for Holmes, causing him to go into hiding.

Holmes studies the rituals of the Order and recognizes their symbols in Blackwood's murders that were staged at specific locations; from this he deduces the targets of the final murder are the members of Parliament. With the aid of Lestrade, Holmes fakes his arrest and is taken to see Coward, where he uses evidence on Coward's clothes to deduce Blackwood has conducted a ceremony in the sewers beneath the Palace of Westminster.

Holmes escapes and he, Watson, and Adler find Blackwood's men in the sewers guarding a device based on Reordan's experiments, designed to release cyanide gas into the Parliament chambers and kill all but Blackwood's supporters, whom he has secretly given an antidote. Blackwood comes before Parliament and announces their impending deaths, then attempts to activate the cyanide device by remote control, but it is disabled by Adler. Blackwood flees Parliament and sees Adler and Holmes in the sewers, and pursues them to the top of the incomplete Tower Bridge. Blackwood fights Holmes, as the latter deduces how all of Blackwood's supposed supernatural feats were the work of science and trickery. Blackwood plummets off the bridge and falls entangled in a noose of chains, killing him when the chain wrapped around his neck hangs him. Adler explains to Holmes that her employer is Professor Moriarty, and she warns that Moriarty is not to be underestimated, and "just as brilliant" as Holmes and "infinitely more devious."

As Watson moves out of 221B, the police report to him and Holmes that a dead officer was found near Blackwood's device. Professor Moriarty used the confrontations with Adler and Blackwood as a diversion while he took a key component, based on the infant science of radio, from the machine. Holmes looks forward to the new case and new adversary.

Sherlock Holmes has been such a prevalent character in our society since he first was introduced. Just like the modern day superheroes impact, so was Sherlock's. Hell, I dare say Batman is the modern day version of Sherlock in every way except the bat suit. So to give this character life and take a different spin on him is both daring and worth the price of admission to see. Nothing is poor in this movie and far excels general expectations for it delivers as a excellent movie. This has been Revisited, thanks for reading. Ricardo signing off.