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selfish bastards
Today I went to see Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows!
As usual when talking about Holmesian media I am starting with a paragraph about my relationship to the material, and it is this: these films aren't canon. (Nothing but the canon, and possibly Jeremy Brett's Granada series, are canon.) Going in with the assumption that every adaptation is essentially fic is deeply freeing, but it also means that instead of judging it on the merits of being an adaptation, I'm judging it on the merits of being a really high-budget fannish endeavor. I'm not sure if that will make the contents of my reaction any different, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
To get what I violently disliked out of the way first: I hated that they killed Irene Adler. I understand the narrative rationale, namely to establish that Moriarty is serious business and that Watson and Mary are in real peril, but it does not make me rageface any less. One does not need to actually murder Irene in order to allow Sim some screentime! Not only that, but the whole point of Irene is that she's the one that got away. Alas, the assassination of character in the name of exciting fanfic. Fine, then, in my headcanon for this universe, Irene somehow faked being poisoned in order to get out of her deal with Moriarty, and now she's somewhere in America, laughing at these foolish men. But ... yeah, it was unfortunate this happened, and so early on, because I continued to be annoyed for the rest of the film because of it.
That said, I was also all prepared to be annoyed at the comedy cross-dressing, and then I ... really wasn't. Which isn't to say that it wasn't faily comedy cross-dressing; it totally was! I just got completely distracted by shirtless RDJ smeared with makeup being totally competent and projecting emotional desperation in Watson's general direction, a combination I found kind of lethally hot. I am not sure if this was the intention, but it happened.
In fact, I am not sure generally what was up with the general laid-on-thick homoeroticism. I mean, I expected it considering the first film, but even so -- Okay. There's this thing that is happening everywhere with buddy cop-type duos recently, specifically the two-men type, in which the homoeroticism is there to bait the fans of queer relationships, but is otherwise deniable. So you have what was supposed to be comedy cross-dressing and comedy "Lie with me, Watson," and if the audience is uncomfortable they can just laugh and mostly ignore it, and at this point the desire of film and television people to have their cake and eat it too in that way is driving me slightly nuts. BUT. I am not sure if that's what's going on here. In this film just as much as in the last one, the emotional story is Holmes' incredibly codependent need to keep Watson in his life; so we end up with scenes like the one in which Watson, having discovered that Holmes has thrown Mary out of a moving train, physically grapples with him while Holmes is half-naked and smeared with makeup, and we're coming very close to something that isn't subtext. (Sharktext, I think![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rayruz has called it, when a text skims right along the surface.) I find myself therefore weirdly incapable of feeling that weary, "Stop this pointless dance and give me some fucking queer text already!" because -- I wasn't given it but I also wasn't not, if that makes any sense.
It's also possible that I'm just giddily addled by some of the later scenes: Watson's wonderful reaction to Holmes' brief death aboard the train whilst they're fleeing Germany; the bit where, to my utter astonishment, Holmes and Watson danced together at the embassy, and while I was wondering why no one at the embassy thought this might be slightly scandalous, I was smiling so hard I hurt my face a bit; and that still quiet moment before Holmes and Moriarty go over the Falls, the peaceful acceptance on Holmes' face, the devastation on Watson's. I think my point is that they can stuff this film to the gills with explosions and stupid unnecessary deaths and a really absurd A plot about starting WWI early, and they can give me a Holmes who is a hot mess brimming with repressed abandonment issues and a Watson who is angry with him all the damn time, which is an amazing but wild extrapolation from canon, but -- if I get those moments in which Holmes and Watson know one another inside out and are utterly mad for each other, oh am I there.
It is certainly also worth mentioning that I really liked Sim; she felt a bit like she was there just so's they could have some ladies, but I am all for ladies, especially since they didn't try to make her a love interest for Holmes, and damn was she badass with a knife. As usual I am a big fan of Mary who, against all odds and her husband's nightmare of a best friend, still manages to make her way through everything with grace and poise and more intelligence than the whole of Scotland Yard. I also quite liked Stephen Fry's Mycroft, though possibly on the strength of the fact that I always love Stephen Fry. I'm also not sure whether he was supposed to be asexual and generally disinterested in society ladies, or if he was supposed to be gayer than a treeful of monkeys &c &c -- again, cos, Stephen Fry, this is a reasonable thing to assume of his characters. For whatever reason this contributed to the Holmes/Watson sharktext for me, but idk if that's remotely valid.
Lastly, I find it fascinating that Holmes bounces right back after Reichenbach. I mean, it makes sense, naturally they were going to have another sequel hook, and you don't really want to end on a depressing Holmes-is-dead note; that said, he seemed to have been gone perhaps a week, at that. And Watson realizes instantly that it was Holmes who sent the oxygen thingie, which means he probably didn't ever get past denial at Holmes' death. This isn't bad at all, it's just -- FIC, you guys, as usual my first reaction is that I want fic, right now, allll the post-film fic about Holmes tagging along on the honeymoon and his and Watson's plethora of issues (and then THREESOMES WITH MARY that is totally my endgame pairing in this universe) and and yes.
(Well, no, really lastly: the castle on Reichenbach Falls looked pretty much exactly like I'd pictured Loki and Darcy's evil fortress. I didn't start laughing delightedly in the theatre, but it was a near thing.)
So -- it was stupid, and what I expected, and it gave me lots and lots of feelings, and I certainly liked it enough to watch it again. And also I hope everyone will have the same Irene Adler headcanon I do, so I do not have to rage about it.
As usual when talking about Holmesian media I am starting with a paragraph about my relationship to the material, and it is this: these films aren't canon. (Nothing but the canon, and possibly Jeremy Brett's Granada series, are canon.) Going in with the assumption that every adaptation is essentially fic is deeply freeing, but it also means that instead of judging it on the merits of being an adaptation, I'm judging it on the merits of being a really high-budget fannish endeavor. I'm not sure if that will make the contents of my reaction any different, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
To get what I violently disliked out of the way first: I hated that they killed Irene Adler. I understand the narrative rationale, namely to establish that Moriarty is serious business and that Watson and Mary are in real peril, but it does not make me rageface any less. One does not need to actually murder Irene in order to allow Sim some screentime! Not only that, but the whole point of Irene is that she's the one that got away. Alas, the assassination of character in the name of exciting fanfic. Fine, then, in my headcanon for this universe, Irene somehow faked being poisoned in order to get out of her deal with Moriarty, and now she's somewhere in America, laughing at these foolish men. But ... yeah, it was unfortunate this happened, and so early on, because I continued to be annoyed for the rest of the film because of it.
That said, I was also all prepared to be annoyed at the comedy cross-dressing, and then I ... really wasn't. Which isn't to say that it wasn't faily comedy cross-dressing; it totally was! I just got completely distracted by shirtless RDJ smeared with makeup being totally competent and projecting emotional desperation in Watson's general direction, a combination I found kind of lethally hot. I am not sure if this was the intention, but it happened.
In fact, I am not sure generally what was up with the general laid-on-thick homoeroticism. I mean, I expected it considering the first film, but even so -- Okay. There's this thing that is happening everywhere with buddy cop-type duos recently, specifically the two-men type, in which the homoeroticism is there to bait the fans of queer relationships, but is otherwise deniable. So you have what was supposed to be comedy cross-dressing and comedy "Lie with me, Watson," and if the audience is uncomfortable they can just laugh and mostly ignore it, and at this point the desire of film and television people to have their cake and eat it too in that way is driving me slightly nuts. BUT. I am not sure if that's what's going on here. In this film just as much as in the last one, the emotional story is Holmes' incredibly codependent need to keep Watson in his life; so we end up with scenes like the one in which Watson, having discovered that Holmes has thrown Mary out of a moving train, physically grapples with him while Holmes is half-naked and smeared with makeup, and we're coming very close to something that isn't subtext. (Sharktext, I think
rayruz has called it, when a text skims right along the surface.) I find myself therefore weirdly incapable of feeling that weary, "Stop this pointless dance and give me some fucking queer text already!" because -- I wasn't given it but I also wasn't not, if that makes any sense.It's also possible that I'm just giddily addled by some of the later scenes: Watson's wonderful reaction to Holmes' brief death aboard the train whilst they're fleeing Germany; the bit where, to my utter astonishment, Holmes and Watson danced together at the embassy, and while I was wondering why no one at the embassy thought this might be slightly scandalous, I was smiling so hard I hurt my face a bit; and that still quiet moment before Holmes and Moriarty go over the Falls, the peaceful acceptance on Holmes' face, the devastation on Watson's. I think my point is that they can stuff this film to the gills with explosions and stupid unnecessary deaths and a really absurd A plot about starting WWI early, and they can give me a Holmes who is a hot mess brimming with repressed abandonment issues and a Watson who is angry with him all the damn time, which is an amazing but wild extrapolation from canon, but -- if I get those moments in which Holmes and Watson know one another inside out and are utterly mad for each other, oh am I there.
It is certainly also worth mentioning that I really liked Sim; she felt a bit like she was there just so's they could have some ladies, but I am all for ladies, especially since they didn't try to make her a love interest for Holmes, and damn was she badass with a knife. As usual I am a big fan of Mary who, against all odds and her husband's nightmare of a best friend, still manages to make her way through everything with grace and poise and more intelligence than the whole of Scotland Yard. I also quite liked Stephen Fry's Mycroft, though possibly on the strength of the fact that I always love Stephen Fry. I'm also not sure whether he was supposed to be asexual and generally disinterested in society ladies, or if he was supposed to be gayer than a treeful of monkeys &c &c -- again, cos, Stephen Fry, this is a reasonable thing to assume of his characters. For whatever reason this contributed to the Holmes/Watson sharktext for me, but idk if that's remotely valid.
Lastly, I find it fascinating that Holmes bounces right back after Reichenbach. I mean, it makes sense, naturally they were going to have another sequel hook, and you don't really want to end on a depressing Holmes-is-dead note; that said, he seemed to have been gone perhaps a week, at that. And Watson realizes instantly that it was Holmes who sent the oxygen thingie, which means he probably didn't ever get past denial at Holmes' death. This isn't bad at all, it's just -- FIC, you guys, as usual my first reaction is that I want fic, right now, allll the post-film fic about Holmes tagging along on the honeymoon and his and Watson's plethora of issues (and then THREESOMES WITH MARY that is totally my endgame pairing in this universe) and and yes.
(Well, no, really lastly: the castle on Reichenbach Falls looked pretty much exactly like I'd pictured Loki and Darcy's evil fortress. I didn't start laughing delightedly in the theatre, but it was a near thing.)
So -- it was stupid, and what I expected, and it gave me lots and lots of feelings, and I certainly liked it enough to watch it again. And also I hope everyone will have the same Irene Adler headcanon I do, so I do not have to rage about it.
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