5.5 out of 10
‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ is more of what you got in the first Holmes movie by director Guy Ritchie: loud, action packed, fast speed to super slow motion style with very little ‘Holmes like’ features. The film may be entertaining but nothing feels like a Sherlock Holmes story except for a few brief scenes where the title character analyzes his situation and plays it out in his head the split second before he does it in reality, which is the same as the first film. ‘Sherlock Holmes: GS’ is definitely a ‘Sherlock for a new generation,’ an A.D.D. generation. It sacrifices smarts for pretty pictures.
If you like the first Robert Downey Jr. ‘Sherlock Holmes’ film then you should like this one. I was in the minority the first time around and probably will be again.
Any spoilers will be clearly marked so you can avoid reading them if you so choose.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opens in Baltimore on December 16, 2011.
The Good
Robert Downey Jr. is once again fantastic. He is one of the few actors that could fit the role of Sherlock Holmes so perfectly. I am starting to wonder if there is a role out there he couldn’t pull off brilliantly. Jude Law is serviceable and does ok with the Dr. Watson character. Noomi Rapace (original ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ series) is very good in a smaller role and it’s nice to see her in a film in English. Hopefully this is the start of a long, successful career for her in American films too. Jared Harris is good as Prof. Moriarty.
One thing director Guy Ritchie seems to always get right is fun and unique visuals. He brings some really cool styles to the big screen and his films are visually fun to watch. He also loves to go from full speed, or even faster, to a screeching halt with a super slow motion shot. This can be disorienting to some viewers but the effect is really cool. The scene where the main characters are being chased through the woods is fantastic (part of that can be seen in the trailer).
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is an entertaining film. The story is good enough to keep the audience interested, the characters are charismatic and fun to watch and the style of the film is unique and visually stunning.
The ending is satisfying. It’s not going to be the biggest reveal you’ve ever seen in a film, but it is smart enough to save the story from being way too superficial.
The Bad
The biggest problem with ‘Holmes: GS’, and the first film for that matter, is that it doesn’t feel like a Sherlock Holmes movie…at all. Perhaps I am in the small population that is a little ‘Holmes spoiled.’ I grew up watching all kinds of different Sherlock Holmes movies and TV shows at my grandfather’s house, including a lot of the British versions. Most of those versions focused on making the story as smart as they could and by the time Holmes got to the ‘explain everything’ scene you were dying to find out what he knew. You get none of that with these Downey Jr. films. Their focus is more on visual effects and fighting scenes. When did Sherlock Holmes become an action star? The story is secondary or even tertiary.
When I review films I use two factors to determine how well I think a film did. The first is the entertainment value. A film doesn’t need to be an Oscar contender to be entertaining. Many times a film is just supposed to be a fun 2-hour release from reality. ‘Holmes: GS’ is entertaining. I had fun watching it. The other factor I use is the film’s intended purpose, or at least what I think the intended purpose is. In this case it seems to me that the filmmakers were trying to bring Sherlock Holmes to a new generation, make him ‘modern’. In that sense I believe the movie failed. I am no Sherlock Holmes scholar, but to me the character should be far more cerebral and much less physical. It’s ok if he needs to get into a scrum every now and then, but find a ‘Holmes’ way out of it, outsmart the other guys. James Bond could kill you with his hands 89 different ways, but sometimes he just throws a lamp in a bathtub to finish a fight. I expected more of that from Holmes.
Just like in the first film there were many times when Downey Jr. was almost impossible to understand. A combination of his accent and sound editing made much of his dialogue impossible to hear. I wish I had subtitles for this one.
The Bottom Line
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is an entertaining film. It’s fun to watch with interesting characters and a unique style. You definitely won’t feel like you wasted 2 hours of your life watching it. Those that enjoyed the first film should have no problem finding a lot to like with this second. The problem with the movie is that it just doesn’t feel like Sherlock Holmes. It’s as if they took a very smart action character and just gave him the name of the iconic literary character. Calling someone by a character’s name doesn’t automatically make it a good fit. Downey’s character is fun to watch but they took Sherlock Holmes in a new direction that doesn’t seem to fit.
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