You know, after watching this I looked up the director and saw Guy Ritchie there and was like, "Why does that name sound familiar? Didn't a Guy Ritchie do The Gentlemen? That can't be this Guy, can it?" I was legitimately shocked when I looked up Ritchie's filmography to find what might be one of the most insane, all over the place lists I've ever scene. How could the same Guy that did great movies like Man from U. N. C. L. E., The Gentlemen and Snatch (haven't seen Lock Stock yet but hear good things) have also done such abominations as the live action Aladdin, King Arthur and these two messes? What is happening here that has his level of quality so all over the map?

I was pretty surprised to look this up and find a lot of people really like this movie and my stance is probably not going to make me any friends but here goes. I think this is hyper-stylized trash. This is a moneygrab of a movie if I ever saw one. Lets take a well known property (Sherlock) and throw in an actor that recently blew up to epic proportions (a post Iron Man RDJ) and a hunky side piece (Law) coupled with a gorgeous femme fatale (McAdams) and a dude that has the perfect voice for a villain (Strong) and just hope the cast and the editing can turn this into something. Don't get me wrong, the cast is all pretty great, but at the same time, how could they not be? The problem is really on the editing room floor because holy cow did they need to dial this stuff back. The voice over fighting, which was neat once but then that's kinda enough of that, the slow motion observation, the whole camera filter on the movie and the general shallowness of what is normally a pretty dark affair. It's not helped by the fact that one year later BBC would come out with Sherlock, a tv series that does all of this so so so SO much better.

Overall, this is a background movie at best. I think actually watching this is and paying attention to it allows the style choices to get too obnoxious but if you just catch little glimpses of things it could be fun. Watching RDJ use a super clockwork taser on a giant is ridiculous as part of a movie but in a little short scenes is kinda funny. That's so much of this movie, things that make for decent gifs and clips but the overall thing is just a mess.