Sherlock Holmes and Daybreakers April 25th, 2010
Originally Written 01/17/10
I saw Sherlock Holmes last week. I hadn’t realized Guy Ritchie was directing it until my friend Paul mentioned it before the showing. You could definitely see his touches in the movie. Some of the high-speed photography during the fight sequences were a bit distracting, but besides that they were stylish.
The grittier view of Sherlock Holmes worked fairly well. Besides looking at his vices and inner demons, I did like how it showed his mind analyzing the scene and planning actions in slowed-down cut-aways before a couple of the fights. That worked in giving him believability when he deduced everything at the end of the film. The relationship and interplay between Holmes and Dr. Watson’s more-reserved nature was fun too.
Overall it was a decent story, but it didn’t totally grab me. I wasn’t astounded by it, but I didn’t hate it either and it was sufficiently entertaining. I’d give it 3/5 stars.
Then this week I took advantage of leaving work early enough to see Daybreakers which was kind of a disappointment. When I first saw the trailer for it, it looked like a good cheesy vampire movie. I wasn’t expecting Citzen Kane but it could’ve been better.
It started off well enough, with a fun story of how a plague had transformed most of the world into vampires. It was a nice twist that the humans were the freaks and having them hunted for blood allowed for good use of themes of dwindling natural resources and corporate greed. They started off well, with some really nice visuals of the muted world of the future, with high-rise buildings with shuttered windows and the cold wash of fluorescent lighting. Unfortunately after that it went downhill fast.
The rest of the movie was overwhelmed by amped-up action and science too stupid to even really be funny. There were moments I enjoyed and seeing Sam Neil play a creepy villain was fun, but overall it kind of felt like a chore to watch. It’s too bad because I wasn’t expecting high cinema and it could’ve been more effective as a fun rental if they’d done a little more with it and toned the exploding vampires down a bit. I’d rate it a 2/5 stars.