It’s time for the big seasonal movies to hit the theaters, and as usual, the major brands are making a showing.
In the past few years, the trend has been to “reboot the franchise” or re-think the origins of some favorite franchises.
The exercise can often result in some radical changes in what some people consider sacred stories.
Three cases in point —
SHERLOCK HOLMES: Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 stories about his hero — the world’s first consulting detective. He was a man of pure reason, using deduction to unravel seemingly impossible crimes.
This is one of the most durable franchises in history. Many movies have strayed from the original stories — the World War II era series of films starring Basil Rathbone might find Holmes chasing Nazi spies. So it’s not unusual to see the stories branch off in new directions.
What purists decry is the way the character is perverted. Two recent reincarnations of Holmes include a British TV series and American Robert Downey, Jr on the big screen.
Bare-chested, two-fisted Robert Downey, Jr. makes a macho Sherlock Holmes
Guy Ritchie is the auteur who decided that instead of thinking his way through problems, Holmes should strip off his shirt so we can see his rippling abs and pecs and beat evil-doers to submission with his fists, by swinging a stick or fencing.
In other words, this character was not really Sherlock Holmes — this was Generic action hero with a formula action adventure movie.
However, the first movie in 2009 (cleverly titled “Sherlock Holmes”) made so much money that “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” is due out just in time for Christmas.