Movie Review: 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Jarros Directed by Guy Ritchie Rated PG-13

It's rare that I go  into a sequel with any sort of expectations of it being better than the first, and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was no exception.  I enjoyed the first one, but felt there wasn't enough of Holmes and Watson together, with an overall plot that never quite felt right.  So as I watch the follow-up to 2009's Sherlock Holmes I found myself wondering if Guy Ritchie heard our complaints about the first one and actually took that criticism to heart.  There are so many aspects that the sequel got right that would have made the first film excellent.

I'm getting ahead of myself.  First, the plot synopsis.  It's 1891,  Dr. Watson (Jude Law) is set to get married to Mary (Kelly Reilly), and Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is about to throw him a stag party.  It's their final sendoff; Watson won't be following Holmes on any more of his cases.  However, Holmes,  along with his brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry), stage the stag party to really allow Holmes continue his case against his greatest foe, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris).

First off, I have to give props to Guy Ritchie and his writing team of Michele & Kieren Mulroney.  This time around, we have a film that's more about Holmes and Watson than anything else, but still manages to develop a deep plot, a strong rivalry between Holmes and Moriarty, and just make a film that was downright fun.  And for those that love the time period and costume drama will likely swoon at the scenery and the attention given to the various, well, costumes.  I'm typically not too big on that sort of theatrics, but even I found myself impressed with how well it turned out.  Though whoever said we need bigger guns and more explosions...meh, that still feels so out of place, even in this new Sherlock Holmes universe.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are also much better together this time around, especially now that they share many more scenes.  Their rapport is cleaner, whether they are sparring wits or analyzing evidence.  And Watson is more of his own character now, much more independent than the first time around.  Noomi Rapace gives life to what would otherwise be a rather boring character, and Jared Harris is extremely under utilized as Moriarty.  His scenes with Downey are second only to the scenes with Downey and Law.

And do I even have to mention the brilliance of Stephen Fry as Sherlock's brother?  This film has such an impressive cast that each scene that focused on the characters literally made the film great for me.

However,  that's probably where the film falls short.  There seemed to be the impression that they needed to go bigger with the action and violence, which isn't always a bad thing.  But in this case, the guns and carnage just kept growing in epic proportions when it really didn't have to.  I'm all on board with an updated Sherlock Holmes character that is highly intelligent and can fight, but all this destruction doesn't seem to belong.  I also get that Moriarty is rich and powerful, but he practically has a private army to send at Holmes and Watson.  I just feel they could have done more with less.

In the end, we have an intelligent, funny, action-packed film that seems to have learned the lessons of its predecessor.  If they keep up this trend, we may be working towards a series of films that actually get better as they go, which rarely happens.

Comments

[Get The Big Picture]

Spot on analysis here. The rivalry between Holmes and Moriarty was phenomenal.