Last night the principal stars of Sherlock Holmes — Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams — were joined by the film’s director, Guy Ritchie, for the world premiere of the film at Empire Leicester Square in London, England last night. While the stars glittered and gleamed on the red carpet, reviews of the film were slowly making themselves known … to mixed results. Here are a few photos from the red carpet arrivals last night and some deets about those mixed reviews:

“Sherlock Holmes,” the latest film incarnation of the quintessentially English detective, drew a mixed reaction from London critics on Tuesday who variously described it as a roaring success and a hack job. London hosted the world premiere late on Monday of director Guy Ritchie’s movie starring Robert Downey, Junior as Holmes and Jude Law as his sidekick Doctor Watson, though the excitement of the event was not quite matched by the newspaper reviews. The Times praised the performances of the two main leads, saying Downey was “terrific” and praising Ritchie for drawing “a career-best performance from Law” — but said their double act failed to carry “an overlong film”. The Guardian was more blunt, saying Downey played Holmes “with boggle-eyed hamminess… a cartoon with darting eyes rather than a brain” and Law was just “blank” in this “high-end hack work”. It accused Ritchie of being in a “muddle” over what he was trying to achieve, saying he airbrushed out Holmes’ drug use and failed in his attempt to update the lead characters’ relationship and that of Watson and his fiancee. Ritchie insisted he had a clear vision, telling a press conference on Monday he had been a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective since childhood “so I had a really strong vision of who Sherlock Holmes should be”. Many reviewers loved the film, however, including The Sun’s showbusiness correspondent who described it as a “roaring success”. Downey was “an exceptional Sherlock, who’s a clinical bare-knuckle fighter, hell-raising drinker and charmer”, he wrote, adding that Law was surprisingly convincing as a hardman. The Daily Telegraph described it as “undeniably a rollicking romp, an all-action blockbuster” led by a youthful Holmes that resembles a young Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist. “The pace rarely slackens throughout, the set pieces are explosive, the score relentlessly thunderous. Victorian London is recreated — relying on copious use of computer effects — with an eye for the grimy reality,” it said. The film’s producer, Joel Silver, who also worked with Ritchie on his previous movie “RocknRolla”, told reporters on Monday that Holmes was a “man of action” and they wanted to have fun with the main characters. “We invested ourselves in trying to make a contemporary movie that feels fresh and original but still embraces what Conan Doyle did. And I hope we succeeded,” he said. The film is released in the United States on December 25.

My guess is that the most negative reviews will come from ardent fans of the literary version of Sherlock Holmes and no movie will ever be able to live up to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s work … particularly if it was directed by Madonna‘s ex-husband. Look, books are one thing movies are another … never the twain shall meet. It is very rare that a movie can live up to the expectation of a good book but it does happen sometimes … but even then, the book will always be superior. The Sherlock Holmes character is rich for movie-making fun and I have every confidence that Robert Downey, Jr. will do a great job bringing the character to life. I’m not worried … even if it’s not the best movie of the year, I have no doubt that Sherlock Holmes will be very entertaining. I can’t wait to see it!

Oh and Jude, lose the dandy babushka around your neck, please!

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin; Source]