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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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