The new Sherlock Holmes movie (and the fic I now want)
My thoughts (or ramblings, if you prefer) on the [new Sherlock Holmes movie (IMDB)].
All you folk who told me I should watch it, you were right!
Hey,
starlady! I counted two scenes which had sunlight! (It's possible there were more, but I might have been distracted by the awesomeness that was the on-screen chemistry)
Speaking of, OMFG THE ON-SCREEN CHEMISTRY!! Everyone was generally great with everyone else (especially among the four main characters)
Between Holmes and Watson it is on fucking fire!
There's actually really good chemistry (not necessarily all sexual, but chemistry nonetheless) between Holmes and Irene.
Mary and Watson clearly care for each other a lot and Watson clearly SIMULTANEOUSLY cares deeply for Holmes. I love all the scenes where Mary walks away and he waits a bit with Holmes and then follows. Mary is quite clearly utterly smitten with Watson, it's really cute.
Mary and Holmes actually had a really good dynamic going on-- I'll call it the 'we both love the same person but we aren't going to both end up with him. This causes tensions and cooperation'. It's a dynamic that can result in really good story because of the conflict inherent in it. It wasn't used frequently here but I expect it to show up in the fanfic more. But it did show up occasionally and awwww! (Especially the scene in the hospital! Aw!)
I was also happy with the acting by Lestrade. (I have an iffy relationship with the character Lestrade in the books so I'm always happy when an actor brings the character alive for me.)
But to backtrack a bit... HOLMES AND WATSON! So, see, generally my point of view is that they could well be BFFs and I secondarily see the OTP. But in this movie, I can't see them primarily as BFFs. There was entirely too much emotional depth wrapped up in their two characters for it to be simply a standard friendship. I haven't yet decided what my personal opinion is on what is their relationship back-story. Currently I'm leaning toward they both acknowledged the attraction but never really acted on it, then Watson fell in love (or at least an approximation of love. He does seem to genuinely care for her in the film and I know in the books he loved her quite a lot) with Mary and that was much more socially acceptable and seemed like a good idea and surely, he thought, surely Holmes could move on a bit and find his own love later. But he forgot about Holmes's obsessive tendencies and really, it is kind of a sad story, that part of it. Long paragraph short, in this movie I be shipping the good ship Holmes/Watson. (Also, I'm fairly certain not just the actors but the writers were on that same vessel-- just look at the scene after the big explosion at the waterfront-- the constable who runs up and tells Holmes to run makes sure to say that Watson is alive and only then (and immediately afterwards) does Holmes runs away.
I think by the end of the movie Holmes still loves Irene but now in the sisterly way. I think at the beginning of it he might have still had some of the old flame for her but by the end I saw that utterly transformed to something that appeared nonsexual to me. (SEE! He's so in love with Watson that he realises what he feels for her now isn't romantic love! Or something.)
The fic that I really want out of this movie:
1) Irene/Mary. There's so many ways that this could go happily-- I'm not terribly wedded to canon in this particular pairing, or really this movie at all**. I just saw two awesome lovely female characters and I want them to get happiness together! C'mon, who's writing the epic Victoriana steampunk 'we kick ass' epic for this pairing? Or the hot PWP? Or the stories which dovetail with canon nicely but happily resolve the boys and we instead focus on the girls? (For this, feel free to ignore the soul-wrenching Victorian feelings about homosexuality, at least for the main characters.)
3) The OT4 (or perhaps OT3 if the one remaining party is dealt with fairly and nicely and not killed off. And I'm not particularly particular about who the 3 are.) Happy puppy piles of love! Angsty we-work-things-out-in-the-end or 'look, we told you so, what took you so long to agree with it' and really, so many others.
7) Gen(ish) background for any of the characters I've named here.
100) Most everything else.
At least these are my preferences as they currently stand. Numbers indicate approximate preference. Sadly I'm going to guess that my interests and the fandom's likely explosion direction are not going to overlap much.
**Sherlock Holmes has kind of reached what I call the folktale stage of a fandom-- there's been enough canon-esque things that different people have different canons running through their heads and I'm fine that the multiple retellings exist and playing fast and loose with them. But I do acknowledge that different people will have canons that they prefer and think of as primary and that they will not necessarily overlap. And eh, that's fine. After all, my personal canon in these folktale-esque fandoms tends to be a hodgepodge of sources.
I think maybe I have gone on long enough. What are your thoughts?
This entry was originally posted at http://fish-echo.dreamwidth.org/41506.html.
All you folk who told me I should watch it, you were right!
Hey,
starlady! I counted two scenes which had sunlight! (It's possible there were more, but I might have been distracted by the awesomeness that was the on-screen chemistry)
Speaking of, OMFG THE ON-SCREEN CHEMISTRY!! Everyone was generally great with everyone else (especially among the four main characters)
Between Holmes and Watson it is on fucking fire!
There's actually really good chemistry (not necessarily all sexual, but chemistry nonetheless) between Holmes and Irene.
Mary and Watson clearly care for each other a lot and Watson clearly SIMULTANEOUSLY cares deeply for Holmes. I love all the scenes where Mary walks away and he waits a bit with Holmes and then follows. Mary is quite clearly utterly smitten with Watson, it's really cute.
Mary and Holmes actually had a really good dynamic going on-- I'll call it the 'we both love the same person but we aren't going to both end up with him. This causes tensions and cooperation'. It's a dynamic that can result in really good story because of the conflict inherent in it. It wasn't used frequently here but I expect it to show up in the fanfic more. But it did show up occasionally and awwww! (Especially the scene in the hospital! Aw!)
I was also happy with the acting by Lestrade. (I have an iffy relationship with the character Lestrade in the books so I'm always happy when an actor brings the character alive for me.)
But to backtrack a bit... HOLMES AND WATSON! So, see, generally my point of view is that they could well be BFFs and I secondarily see the OTP. But in this movie, I can't see them primarily as BFFs. There was entirely too much emotional depth wrapped up in their two characters for it to be simply a standard friendship. I haven't yet decided what my personal opinion is on what is their relationship back-story. Currently I'm leaning toward they both acknowledged the attraction but never really acted on it, then Watson fell in love (or at least an approximation of love. He does seem to genuinely care for her in the film and I know in the books he loved her quite a lot) with Mary and that was much more socially acceptable and seemed like a good idea and surely, he thought, surely Holmes could move on a bit and find his own love later. But he forgot about Holmes's obsessive tendencies and really, it is kind of a sad story, that part of it. Long paragraph short, in this movie I be shipping the good ship Holmes/Watson. (Also, I'm fairly certain not just the actors but the writers were on that same vessel-- just look at the scene after the big explosion at the waterfront-- the constable who runs up and tells Holmes to run makes sure to say that Watson is alive and only then (and immediately afterwards) does Holmes runs away.
I think by the end of the movie Holmes still loves Irene but now in the sisterly way. I think at the beginning of it he might have still had some of the old flame for her but by the end I saw that utterly transformed to something that appeared nonsexual to me. (SEE! He's so in love with Watson that he realises what he feels for her now isn't romantic love! Or something.)
The fic that I really want out of this movie:
1) Irene/Mary. There's so many ways that this could go happily-- I'm not terribly wedded to canon in this particular pairing, or really this movie at all**. I just saw two awesome lovely female characters and I want them to get happiness together! C'mon, who's writing the epic Victoriana steampunk 'we kick ass' epic for this pairing? Or the hot PWP? Or the stories which dovetail with canon nicely but happily resolve the boys and we instead focus on the girls? (For this, feel free to ignore the soul-wrenching Victorian feelings about homosexuality, at least for the main characters.)
3) The OT4 (or perhaps OT3 if the one remaining party is dealt with fairly and nicely and not killed off. And I'm not particularly particular about who the 3 are.) Happy puppy piles of love! Angsty we-work-things-out-in-the-end or 'look, we told you so, what took you so long to agree with it' and really, so many others.
7) Gen(ish) background for any of the characters I've named here.
100) Most everything else.
At least these are my preferences as they currently stand. Numbers indicate approximate preference. Sadly I'm going to guess that my interests and the fandom's likely explosion direction are not going to overlap much.
**Sherlock Holmes has kind of reached what I call the folktale stage of a fandom-- there's been enough canon-esque things that different people have different canons running through their heads and I'm fine that the multiple retellings exist and playing fast and loose with them. But I do acknowledge that different people will have canons that they prefer and think of as primary and that they will not necessarily overlap. And eh, that's fine. After all, my personal canon in these folktale-esque fandoms tends to be a hodgepodge of sources.
I think maybe I have gone on long enough. What are your thoughts?
This entry was originally posted at http://fish-echo.dreamwidth.org/41506.html.