Though the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law is priceless as they embark on a journey across London as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, it was hard to stay focused on the movie.
The combination of awkward scene changes, poor order of events, and bad articulation on top of heavy accents made it a hard movie to understand.
“Sherlock Holmes” began with immediate action that then led to investigations of murders of characters that had not yet been introduced. The movie didn’t begin making sense until about half way through. While some may find this enjoyable, it takes away from the climax of the movie. Even though it’s interesting to understand how all strings are tied at the end of the movie, it only makes it enjoyable for no more than the 20 minutes of wrap-up. Until then, the scene changes seem awkward and confusing.
To make matters worse, the order of events didn’t make sense. Movies like “Sherlock Holmes” tend to be fun to follow along with before the answers are revealed. However, it would have been near impossible to solve this investigation before the end. Not only were the scene changes awkward, the scene sequence was illogical and cluttered. It wasn’t until Holmes went back through every aspect of the investigation that the previous two hours of the movie actually began making sense.
Topping it all off, most of what was said was extremely hard to understand. The heavy English accents made it difficult to make out what anyone was saying. But that wasn’t the worst part. Normally in a movie with as much action and conversation as “Sherlock Holmes,” the characters speak loudly and clearly. However, the majority of the conversations were soft and mumbled. In a movie like this one, the conversation is an important contribution to helping the viewer’s ability to follow along and understand the plot.
The awkwardness of the scene changes, muddled order of events, and poor articulation combined with heavy accents made for a confusing, unorganized, and irritating movie.
About Jaclyn Kuzma