6. Irene Adler Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows
Irene Adler was a fun character in Guy Ritchies Sherlock Holmes franchise, and was fantastically played by Rachel McAdams. Offering a rare female presence in this bromantical and occasionally homoerotic (come on, you know it to be true) new world, she instantly established herself as an intriguing character, something which the writers exploited in the first film by having her play both sides of the fence. She was also the only person consistently able to outsmart Holmes, and that in itself marks her out as remarkable. As just established, Adler had a large presence in the first film, kicking behinds wearing a wildly impractical dress before rocking up in a much more suitable brawling outfit. She was shown as tough, competent and she knew how to handle herself. When it came time for the second film, we knew she might have a lesser role because of McAdams commitments elsewhere, but we were fine with that Adler disappeared a lot in the first film, and because she rarely appear in the novels you can pretty much make her history up as you go along. There wouldve been a way to easily put the character on ice and have her return for an inevitable third instalment. Yet that wasnt what happened. Instead, Adler was sacrificed on the altar of Moriartys character development so we could show just how formidable he was. I can see why they did it nothing establishes just how dangerous Holmes nemesis is by having him kill the second-smartest person so far in the franchise, but I felt they might have taken the point a bit too far. Like Cyclops before her, they effectively Red Shirted Adler where she probably deserved something slightly better. After witnessing her dispatching goons with aplomb in the first film, I thought she wouldve gone out all guns blazing rather than falling for the oldest trick in the book in a poisoned cup of tea itself a spectacularly out-of-character and naive move considering she was meeting with possibly the most devious man alive. It was just a bit sad, really.