Sherlock Holmes

I give it a thumbs up.

Going into the movie, I wasn't sure exactly how I would feel about it, outside of the "yay, stuff blows up" element. Besides the fact that things didn't blow up as much as I thought they would, good film over all.

I will admit that I never watched/read the originals and only know the plot based on allusions from other stories and conversations.

As a stand alone piece, it worked well. I didn't need to know of anything else and from what I heard, it might have been for the better in my case, since I tend to be a purist in adaptations. There is a great deal of complexity when it comes to the titular character of Sherlock Holmes that I found very intriguing as a character. Not to mention Robert Downey Jr. is just yummy.

Plenty of action and a nice level of complexity to the storyline that helped. A couple of jump in your seat moments though nothing particularly scary - always a plus with me.

I suppose the only downside of this particular movie was that I left feeling completely content in what I just saw. There was no desire or drive to continue learning more about anything, whether it be the history of the time or the story that it was pulled from. I find that the movies I love the most are the ones that make you want to do that.

Overall:
Liked it a great deal. Would definitely see it again and will probably add it to my growing collection of movies when it comes out.
Don't expect traditional, gentlemanly Sherlock Holmes that most older viewers apparently want or at least expected.
Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law were excellent. Acting alone makes it worth seeing.

Go see the movie and have fun.