Cumberbatch or Downey Jr? Reddit’s Verdict on the Best Sherlock Is Pretty Surprising

14 years ago, we were all shocked by the new take on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories. Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, it presented the new vision of our favorite detective and modernized the whole story of his exploits.

Just a year before that the world saw Guy Ritchie ’s adaptation, set in the 1890s just like the canon, yet offered a more dynamic narration with lots of action sequences. This movie was received not as positively as the series that aired from 2010 to 2017, however, Reddit’s recent discussion concludes that Ritchie’s version holds up significantly better.

It was Redditor @saylorthrift who started this debate, and their hot takes surprisingly gained large support. Overall, it is stated that the 2009 movie has aged better than Moffat and Gatiss’ show because of its cast, setting, atmosphere, as well as screenplay.

Firstly, Ritchie’s take is claimed to assemble the cast that fits their characters better. Let’s start from the very Sherlock actor, as Robert Downey Jr. here seems to be an insightful but certainly flawed person just like we are, while Benedict Cumberbatch ’s Holmes isn’t perceived as a human, but rather a machine that is intolerable to others.

Besides, RDJ can even have a bigger chemistry with his co-star, Jude Law as Dr. Watson, than Cumberbatch has with Martin Freeman. As for the rest of the cast, Reddit even dared to doubt Andrew Scott ’s take on Moriarty, while the movie’s female leads, Rachel McAdams as Irene and Kelly Reilly as Mary, are surely praised a lot.

If we take the plot into account, Ritchie’s movie was panned for having few detective scenes and focusing too much on action. However, here it’s done on purpose, and in fact “their narration style in the fights matched their characters,” as voiced by @jessebona.

And we’re not saying much about the greatness of the movie’s iconic soundtrack that was composed by Hans Zimmer, as well as the very 19th century’s setting, which the creators of the Cumberbatch-starring series decided to get rid of at all.

There is a major flaw in Ritchie’s version: it’s panned for its controversial follow-up, 2011’s A Game of Shadows. However, the series is also criticized for failing the finale, as fans argue that “the last few episodes were nowhere as good as the first two seasons.”

Thus, don’t let the 2009 Sherlock adaptation be unfairly forgotten, come and revise it, as Sherlock Holmes is available for watching on Netflix , HBO Max and Prime Video .

Source: Reddit