The first trailer for Sherlock Holmes made its way online last night, finally offering viewers a look at Robert Downey Jr.'s shabby take on the venerable British detective. And while you won't see Guy Ritchie's name anywhere in the clip, it might be the director's quick-cut, slo-mo pulp stylings that leave the most lasting impression in advance of the film's holiday-season release. Which, for once, might not be such a bad thing.
What proved alienating in those hyper-aggressive spots for last year's Rocknrolla -- the one-liners, the winking violence, the inflated bravado -- boasts considerably more appeal in Holmes. Sure, a lot of it likely owes to Downey's presence on the business end of Ritchie's camera; from the accent to the downmarket period apparel, his is a far more modulated masculinity than we're used to in Ritchie's men. (Less-discreet critics will no doubt invoke some post-Madonna emasculation influence -- whoops, I guess I just did.) But even in a little more than two minutes, the message is clear: Downey's shambolic sleuth is a vulnerable dude, and fists aside, this is all just a big cartoon.
And how about those fists, anyway? No trick shot in the world can conceal some of the full-contact stunts unfolding here, though any more variation in film speed would probably make weaker stomachs convulse from some blend of motion sickness and marketing vertigo. Jude Law, meanwhile, packs a mean door-kick as an otherwise fey Watson, and Rachel McAdams -- who I hope has dialogue in the finished film -- brandishes a punishing knee when her more conventional weapons of choice fail her Victorian... prostitute? Dancer? It's a you-get-what-you-pay-for ensemble, basically, and the teases here don't suggest any one of them will slip into a franchise complacency coma by Christmas.
This being a Joel Silver production, the combustions-to-lines ratio is high, and you've never seen nor heard a name spelled out onscreen with such climactic, overblown abandon. "HOLMES!!!!!" Law then shouts, finishing the thought and the trailer in general, save for Downey's comedown coda. Are you going to trust him? Moreover, are you going to trust Ritchie? Do I really have to ask?
VERDICT: Sold!