Hot damn. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – I would watch Robert Downey, Jr. read the phone book on screen if that’s all he did. And as an extra added bonus I thoroughly enjoyed Jude Law for the first time in my memory. But I don’t like Mark Strong for some incomprehensible reason. And I can’t say I honestly like the ass-whupping, steampunk Holmes. I like Rathbone’s reserved detective, shorn of emotion in favor of pure reason.
I think it’s a different Holmes and I think both have merit. This Holmes may give rise to a series of excellent buddy movies. Something like a less whiny Lethal Weapon. I would be OK with that.