I have never come so close to walking out of a movie in my life. Seriously, if Ted hadn’t been with me, I think I’d have been out of there in the first ten minutes. The reason why, full of spoilers, behind the cut. So is a fair bit of swearing.
It opened with Irene Adler. I thought, “Oh! I didn’t know she was in this. I hope that doesn’t mean they’re going to kill her off.”
Ten minutes later she was dead.
Let me be perfectly clear. I do not know if Irene Adler died that way in the books. I don’t even know if Irene Alder is *in* the books. Even if she is and it’s canon, I do not give a shit.
Yes, the threat to the Watsons would have been less credible if Irene had not died. Yes, it’s entirely possible, given that this is Sherlock Holmes, that Irene is not actually dead. Let me repeat, in case you missed it: I don’t give a shit.
I am *tired* of the smart clever appealing woman dying in the first ten minutes, or halfway through, because it makes for a more credible threat or because it didn’t really happen or whatever the hell reason you want. I was *infuriated*. I *am* infuriated. *Fuck* that. Find somebody else to kill. Establish a credible threat by OH I DON’T KNOW BLOWING UP A NUMBER OF POLITICAL TARGETS OH WAIT THEY DID THAT TOO.
Ted said, “At least they got an emotional reaction out of you? …not that walking out of the theatre is the emotional reaction they want…” Yeah, it’s not, and neither is losing me before the introduction of the film is over, and believe me, they had lost me. They lost me *cold*. I found the movie mildly amusing. There were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. RDJ and Jude Law make a great Holmes/Watson bromance. I love them together. I really do. But I could not get over them killing Irene Adler. I didn’t warm up to the movie again until the *last* ten minutes, with the fall.
And that, to be fair, was so beautifully done–the moment between Holmes and Watson, the closing of the eyes, the silence, the stillness–it was perfect. It was perfect. And they won me back there, because it was so beautiful.
But I left the theatre with a bad taste in my mouth and I’m still pissed and what pisses me off even more is knowing I’ll see the third one just in case they use it to say “Hah! Not dead after all!” and bring Irene back. *Fuck* this. Fuck them killing Irene and fuck them killing Letty and fuck them killing Ripley and just ARRRRRRRRGH. Fuck them *all*.
Are you talking about Letty from the Fast and Furious movies? If so, she actually isn’t dead. At the end of the credits for Fast Five, they show a pic of her still alive. I’m interested to see how that one works out.
Yes, and while I’m delighted they’re apparently bringing her back (I saw F5 too), I’m still pissed they KILLED HER IN THE FIRST PLACE. Because don’t tell me it’s not a big fat retcon in response to fans going ZOMG NO YOU CAN’T KILL LETTY! They didn’t plan to just make us think she was dead. They killed her and now they’re going to try to fix it.
Catie, I’m glad I was warned. I’ll probably see it anyhow, because I liked the first one. But you’re right, dat’s a kick in da fork, as Terry Pratchett’s troll “copper” Sgt. Detritus would put it.
Bleah.
They did revive Ripley, you know? I wound up writing the novelization of the fourth Alien film (after Allen Dean Foster turned them down) with Kathy O’Malley. We did our level best with it, and the book was actually better than the film. But we didn’t have great material to work with. Oh, well.
Thanks again for the warning!
-Ann C. Crispin
I didn’t know you’d written the novelization! I actually liked the 4th Alien movie possibly best of all of them, but I have a real weakness for Ron Perlman, and he had one of the best lines in science fiction film in that movie. :) But yeah, I know they revived her, and…reviving is a certain load of horseshit, too. “OMG, let’s bring Jean Grey back from the dead! AGAIN!”
I completely agree. I hate when pretty much any character gets killed in any book or movie. I even have a soft spot for some of the villains. I’m just now forgiving Kim Harrison for a certain character she killed off “early” in the series. Thanks for the warning about Sherlock. Definitely going to be a wait for Netflix movie now.
We saw it last night and I was rather peeved, too – but not as bad as you – and I have to admit I kept waiting for her to reappear somehow, or Holmes to discover that Moriarty lied about her.
But, damn. Yeah.
And, fwiw, I found the movie rather LONG. And I had little emotional investment. Sure it was cute and Jude Law was excellent as always, but it just seemed like a lot of convoluted hokum with minimal payoff. I don’t think we’ll be getting the DVD.
Well we saw it and killing Irene was one of the problems we had with it. The other was that a big part of what we liked about the first one was that London was actually a major character of the story. It made everything so real.
Halfway through the German forest scene my husband turns to me and tells me he’s figured out what’s wrong with the movie. After it’s done we agree that London isn’t a character in this movie and the movie really suffers becase of it. We didn’t really feel much of an emotional investment in the story.
Though I agree the ending was wonderfully done. And I truly appreciated the fact that they showed Watson had absorbed Holmses methods in small ways throughout the movie and in the awesome way at the end.
Liked it but not as much as the first one.