Sherlock?! No Shit!
May. 19th, 2009 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumelia'Kay, so this doesn't look anything like the Sherlock Holmes I read (and co continue to read).
I mean, there's all this sexual innuendo and slashy undertones and Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler) as a beard for Robert Downy Jr (Sherlock Holmes) and Jude Law (Doctor Watson).
Not that I'm complaining mind you. Though I probably will...
It looks to be (and we're also told on the interwebs) character interpretation based and not so much on the Arthur Conan Doyle canon, which makes me wonder it's structured to be a one off or planned to be franchised, because if you look at Iron Man, it was made to be sequeled, as was Batman Begins (oh, Dark Knight, how good you are).
However, I very much enjoy re-imaginings and Sherlock is very much the hero. My brother would argue he's the first Super-Hero, massive intellect as a Superpower, sidekick and the parallel Nemesis.
I tend to disagree, because then what do you call all the classic myths?
The first "Modern" Super-Hero?
I'll think about it.
Regardless, the trailer looks quite awesome as most Guy Ritchie movies tend to look. I very much like RDJ being Sherlock. Being the hero is a good look on him. Jude Law being the side-kick is a bit odd, as I think I'm used to him being the Main or the Villain, 'cause he's tall.
Or at least, taller than RDJ.
The movie just from the trailer looks pretty formulaic; murder/mystery, hero, villain, Establishment/Officialdom antagonism towards the hero, side-kick, femme, villain kidnaps hero/sidekick/femme/two or all of the above, villain is defeated, Establishment/Officialdom deny that hero helped solve the murder/mystery and capture the villain, hero walks into the sunset/fog with sidekick/femme/or both.
I'm still waiting for a Holmes/Bond crossover.
I'm also waiting for Felix Leiter to be the Bond
All right, now I'm digressing.
I'll tell you what would be really fantastic... if Sherlock really would walk off arm in arm in arm with Watson and Irene at the end of the movie.
But I have until December to find out.
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it's dracula....ok maybe not
Date: 2009-05-19 07:48 am (UTC)But setting that aside, I always see Holmes as being taller, thinner, having the air of you know, chic drug addiction (way before it became cool) - and well, much more assexual.
This Holmes is like...Dr House. And well, more sexual.
(wouldn't Hercules be the first super-hero? ;)
Re: it's dracula....ok maybe not
Date: 2009-05-19 08:38 am (UTC)Including the musicality and (uncool) drug chicness.
Which makes Cuddy kind of like Irene, including the Jewishness ("Adler" is a common Jewish name :-).
Holmes is very much the Bohemian and was pretty anti-establishmentarian in his way - his sense of justice is also kind of wonky, but he loves puzzles.
(Batman, anyone?... Never mind :P)
I'm pretty sure Alan Moore in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has done what you say... plus a ton of other crossover plots.
Re: it's dracula....ok maybe not
Date: 2009-05-19 08:48 am (UTC)I'm still waiting for the big Holmes/Watson gay romance (with lots of dark angst, because Holmes is so self-destructive), I think it will happen in my lifetime. I just have to be patient, there is already one novel.
Re: it's dracula....ok maybe not
Date: 2009-05-19 08:56 am (UTC)Of a Holmes/Watson romance?! Really? What's is called.
Re: it's dracula....ok maybe not
Date: 2009-05-19 09:06 am (UTC)Dammitt! I knew that was going to be your next question, because I don't know *wails*. A friend lent it to me back when I was 18 (along with Mercedes Lacky, 'Last Herald Mage'), she picked it up at a garage sale, and I do remember it was published in the late 70s and 80s..and it was blue. Does that help? Can't remember the title, the author, or most of the storyline, but I do remember this lovely scene with rain and a violin.
It wasn't really explicit. If anyone knows, tell me! Coz I haven't a clue. And I don't think it was some private press fanfiction type thing, it was a properly published novel.
May I take this opportunity to bring up another book I've been looking for (please beg my forgiveness to do so in your LJ) there is another book I've always wanted to find, and it's a science-fiction one, where humans are colonising a planet which is terribly hostile to human life, and they can only settle in the low-lands because the oxygen is thin in most of the planet, and it's set from the POV of a young girl, who thinks she's really normal, out up in the mountains, her parents died when she was little (they were scientists, I think) and the computer/robot has raised her, but genetically modified her to survive in the harsh atmosphere. She doesn't realise it until she meets normal humans, and it's sad. Anyone know, I'll love you for life.
Re: it's dracula....ok maybe not
Date: 2009-05-19 11:31 am (UTC)Re: it's dracula....ok maybe not
Date: 2009-05-19 11:40 am (UTC)Thank you. Now, I have to track it down.
ETA: and it looks like it's as angsty as vaguely remembering it to be...unless there is another book out there. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 08:12 am (UTC)For example : 'status quo' - mythical heroes are changed by their adventure. The story ends with their death or the achievement of their goal. Holmes ends one adventure and begins the next one in(more the less) the same stage.
Two exceptions: (1) Gods also have a status quo (Zeus and Apollo's endless conquest of women) but here you could argue that they are the antagonists and not the protagonists of the Myth. (2) Portions of heroic myths have 'status quo' - the tasks of Hercules or Odysseus' voyages. But these are part of a larger story and not a serial.
Holmes also "Died" and "Returned" in two separate stories published apart. Older myths would have death/rebirth as one story and not two.
I could go on :)
I'm not arguing that Holmes is the very first modern super-hero, but certainly the first who gained such popularity and longevity.
I don't like idea of a Holmes/Watson romance. I think a sidekick should be a sidekick. On the other hand, I do think the original Watson was a bit too passive for a good 21st sidekick and the bits in the trailer do look promising.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 08:43 am (UTC)I also like Watson being more of an action man, it also makes sense with his military background - I wonder if they'll talk about that in the movie. Watson, more than other side kicks that I know, is a grounding force for Holmes, who can get very detached and cruel - Watson is definitely the Humanity liaison here - as in the novels and stories.
Irene looks a little too much like Eye-Candy in the trailer, I hope she gets to be more than the Femme Fatale in the film.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 08:51 am (UTC)Like Xena and Gabrielle ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 09:03 am (UTC)I'll admit that it can be done, but I feel that taking a mentor-student relationship and adding romance without changing anything else is simply lazy.
i.e. If Gabrielle had grown, changed and become co-equal (spin off show?) to Xena then it would have been good story telling.
From what I saw (which I admit, is not much of the latter seasons) it was done as pure fan-service/tease.
The only way Watson/Holmes "shipping" would work (IMO) would be if the story were a Watson-centric one, where the regular Holmes/Watson relationship does not already have central stage.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 09:11 am (UTC)But all through the series they always made jokes about 'sidekicks', it was the type of show which made fun of itself, and broke the fourth wall.
Hence me saying, like Xena and Gabrielle...don't worry, injoke. For me Xena and Gabrielle are romantic canon. And a lot of fans hated the last two seasons, so they were crap with the fanservice then (they pissed off a lot of fandom), I really didn't like the 5th season, or the ending. The best season was the second and third one.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 09:14 am (UTC)It really went downhill when she died, again, and what was with Gabi's baby!?
That freaked me the fuck out!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 09:20 am (UTC)I like to pretend that didn't happen, or if it did, it happened very differently. Except it brought about the Musical...so at least there was, something good to it. And later on we got 'One Against An Army'.
By the end of Season 3 Renee O'Connor said to Robert Tapert, 'Can you stop making Gabrielle cry?'.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 09:13 am (UTC)What do you mean by lazy? It doesn't have to be romance you know, it's a different aspect to the relationship(s). Almost all slash (be it m/m or f/f) is inferred and not stated in the actual text (this includes when one character very obviously shows desire for another and not having it returned - the first example that comes to mind is Captrain Jack and the Doctor - sorry to be Who!centric).
Subtext is subtle and very much reader-based. One cannot take the Author's word for much when it come to meaning. So even if Watson/Holmes is very much platonic textually, that doesn't mean that one cannot find, beneath the surface, erotic desire that stirs them both.
And this is in Canon, let's not forget.
further
Date: 2009-05-19 09:18 am (UTC)This leads me to believe that you didn't watch the last episode - where, that is pretty much what happens. (except the crappy ending, but Gabrielle was almost as good as Xena as a warrior, although that wasn't her strength as a character, it was her storytelling and her love of peace).
And Gabrielle changed radically over the series, in so many ways. She really did grow up.
Re: further
Date: 2009-05-19 12:07 pm (UTC)I did not watch the show that much!
:)