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I haven't watched "The Rings of Power" nor have I watched "House of the Dragon" or most of the other woke versions of beloved IP's. Mostly because I just don't care about GoT or LoTR. But I think I have seen most if not all of the Sherlock Holmes adaptions. Everything from Basil Rathbone's Holmes to Sherlock Gnomes. I even read the books when I was a child.
The latest film adaption of Sherlock is called "Enola Holmes 2". It focuses on Sherlocks younger sister Enola who, after her origin story in "Enola Holmes 1" has now set up his own detective agency, the movie is about her first case.
A young girl names Bess hires Enola to find her sister Sarah.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Enola finds out that Sarah worked at a matchstick factory, where she discovered that the matches they were making caused the women there to get typhus and die. She fell in love with the owners son and with his help stole some documents from the office proving that it was done knowingly and went into hiding so that they could get the documents to Lord Tewkesbury who would then present it in parliament and thus bring the villains to justice. During the course of the film we get help from Sherlock who is working on his own case. We get help from Enolas mother who left her children in the first movie to fight for women's right or something. We meet the villains of the story who are Superintendent Grail from Scotland Yard and some industrialists called Lyon and Mcintyre. Moriarty also makes an appearance.
The movie is produced by Netflix. It is peak woke, and here are all the things about the movie I found annoying.
#1
The scene which annoyed me the most and made me write this post is the reveal of moriarty. The big reveal is that it's a black woman and her real name is Mira Troy. What made this so ridiculous to me is that it reminded me of my favorite Sherlock Holmes adaptation called "Without a Clue", a comedy and parody film in which the roles of Watson and Holmes are reversed, Watson is the genius detective and Holmes the bumbling sidekick. It is a great film and in my opinion the best Sherlock Holmes adaptation.
There is a scene in "Without a Clue" that when I first saw it fell on the floor laughing for minutes. https://youtube.com/watch?v=SsFEmLN-r3M
So now, in the year 2022 we get a completely serious scene where we find out that Moriartys real name is Mira Troy.
#2
The most diverse casting I have seen outside of Black Panther. Victorian England is filled with half black people, they're everywhere, Lestrade is black, Moriarty is black, Watson is Black. All the main heroes have a black best friend. Not to mention background actors.
Who isn't black are the villains, all the police doing the dirty work are white, the corrupt superintendent Grail(the main villain). The snobby upper class whose ball we go to is white. The industrialists are white. The evil Foreman at the factory is white.
Moriarty is black, but she is played more as an antihero and someone who is every bit Holmes equal, just being forced to be a villain because of the horrible racist society that is keeping her down. She even gives a long speech before her arrest that I found super annoying.
#3
The evil superintendent Grail gets kicked in the balls 3 times. Including the hit that finally kills him, after which we see a frame of a literal cracked egg, not very subtle.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to see men getting kicked in the balls. There's no humor in it. It's not even effective in real life. Ladies when you kick a man in the balls you don't disable him, you just make him angry.
In the movie it's not even necessary, because...
#4
All the women have the martial art skills of John Wick. There is a scene in which the policemen finally catch Enola, her mother, and her mothers black best friend.
They are outmatched and outnumbered, but nevermind, because those three women just proceed to straight-up kick the shit out of the men and make their escape.
If you're gonna make a movie like this, shouldn't you play up the fact that the heroine is physically outmatched and has to use her wits or something.
#5
The relationship between Enola and her love interest. A wealthy young Lord Tewkesbury. Who is the epitomy of a soy boy, he reminded me of Pitt the Younger from Blackadder. https://youtube.com/watch?v=T3jIE3b-bhY
Apparently they are in love, but Enola treats him terribly, she insults him constantly, keeps calling him boy. And generally makes herself very annoying.
If she treats him like this when they are courting just imagine what happens when they finally get married. Run young duke.
#6
The movie claims that It's based on a true story, the title screen says "Some of what follows is true. The important parts at least." The important part they are referring to is the match-girl strike of 1888. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchgirls%27_strike
#7
The scene of the women going on strike.
The girls break into the factory, strong-arm the foreman, stand on a desk and give a speech about how they should go on strike. None of the women are persuaded by the speech and are going back to work. But then the heroes start literally stamping their feet which gets the women worked up and they go strike.
I guess the moral of the story is that women are incapable of listening to words and reason. I don't know. It was very annoying.
#8
Also, Holmes gets drunk for some reason that they don't explain in the movie, it's very uncharacteristic of him.
In conclusion though, I don't think this will ruin the franchise. There have been a lot of adaptations of Holmes, and some real stinkers. It's just sad to see.
3 ) Eh, it's a kids' movie. Kids of all stripes can appreciate a good ball shot.
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I've stayed far away from modern Holmes novels since the Mary Russell nonsense, but my understanding is that the Enola Holmes books are YA novels?
So of course they're going to be packed with "girl power" and impeccable 21st century progressive attitudes, and Netflix are only going with the Zeitgeist by having every second character be black, except for the villains who all must be white males.
Are you surprised that Holmes gets drunk, being saddled with a sister like Enola? 😁
And of course, despite the impeccable attitudes, Enola's love interest is a nobleman, not a working-class kid from the London slums. After all, how else is she going to get a title of nobility as she deserves?
I thought it was phossy jaw, not typhus, that match girls got, but presumably that was too much realism for a streaming service. Disfiguring and ugly, not a picturesque ailment.
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I got roped into this by a lady friend. Yes, I really feel I need to make excuses for how I wasted two hours of my life on this.
#5 is the worst. The most eligible bachelor in the city, a Marquess with model looks, wealth and a seat in the House of Lords who is fawned over by the most eligible debutantes in an actual scene in this movie. He tolerates being insulted and emasculated by the protagonist before declaring his love for her. At which point she insults him again before telling him she returns his feelings.
#4 was pretty bad too. London police with clubs, swords and pistols unable to contend with the unarmed female trio throughout the film. Why didn't Grail use his weight to just throw her off the catwalk at the end?
I understand this is a Feminist movie, but every time I see women out-brawling men of twice their weight through 'martial arts' I'm reminded of the times I've seen women try starting fights with the wrong sort of man while drunk at the pub.
You can have women beat men in fights with the use of ingenuity, surprise and weaponry, just not hand to hand in a stand up fight. It breaks suspension of disbelief.
Another bugbear was Sherlock's obsequious thanks to the black judo instructor towards the end of the film.
#2 - I kind of expect diverse casting these days, but I really hated them trying to turn Moriarty into a sympathetic figure. She only turned to crime because of how she was treated by the pompous privileged 'real' villains; the white industrialist and Minister of Finance. She had to accidentally have the kind hearted industrialist's son murdered, but she didn't mean to because she didn't know Grail was a blunt instrument even as she used him as a puppet. Convenient that she is incompetent enough to allow her to retain sympathy when necessary despite being a criminal mastermind.
I think I'll skip the sequels.
I'd be interested in "Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes" movie, but only if they stripped out the obnoxious brat sister and all the DEI stuff. Of course, objecting to stuffing in black actors for made-up parts for DEI points means I'm a racist, see Rings of Power 😉
A black criminal mastermind? Even a female black criminal mastermind? Go for it, but that's not Moriarty. Invent your own original characters.
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I saw it. Would that I could bleach my brain.
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