Sherlock Holmes: The Intersection of Art and Entertainment (spoilers)

I imagine that few iconic characters have been portrayed more frequently and robustly over the last century than Sherlock Holmes.  Way too many for me to think of going into here.  In the 40's the number of films based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective and starring Basil Rathbone made it almost a serial.  Many of them are quite good too.  The Disney studio's affection for him was such that the loveable dog in The Great Mouse Detective is named Basil.  My personal favorite is the long running series starring Jeremy Brett as the famous detective.  One of his very best is The Hound of the Baskervilles.  All shot on location with English actors and excellent period sets and clothing.  The acting is generally very good.  Then, there's The Great Mouse Detective which I only got to see recently.  I thought it was fantastic.  Excellent artistically and story-wise.  The attention to detail and the focus on the mystery and the battle of wits between the detective and Ratigan are exceptional.  And it was done in an animation style that I'm very fond of.  It's similar to The Rescuers and Robin Hood. 

And of course there's Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes.  The first film drops you right into that world and it's all about the mystery.  The plot is strong and the wit is sharp.  I actually loved what they did for Watson's character.  He's general portrayed as standing around in amazement at Holmes.  But he is a war veteran and a doctor.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  My husband loved it to pieces.

Sadly, I was not as big a fan of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  I told my husband I thought the first film was far better.  He tried a little bit to defend it, but I stood by my assertion.  They made Holmes and Watson action heroes.  I feared this would happen from the first preview I saw.  The fight sequences were too long.  Holmes is practically a karate master.  The script lacked the original's rapier wit.  I mean the banter was ok.  And there wasn't much of a mystery to it.  My husband said he had it figured out in the first 25 minutes.  Now, there were portions of the film that perhaps lived up to the original's quality, but as a whole it just wasn't there.

So my conclusion is that Sherlock Holmes can support all kinds of changes, even modernizing him is ok.  He can get in on the fighting too.  It adds to the entertainment.  But in the end there has to be a strong mystery with a study stream of detective work.  And it has to be understandable how Holmes figures things out, even if the average Joe couldn't do it.