Sherlock
Holmes proved a decent success for Warner Brothers, so naturally a sequel was
inevitable, it was fast-tracked by the studio and was released in 2011. It was
about as successful as the first one commercially but there was a slight drop
in critical response, with a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the 70
the first one got? Where did this one go wrong? Did it go wrong? Here’s my take:
Sherlock is
on the trail of the devious Professor Moriarty, already having linked him to
several murders across Europe. Irene Adler’s affection for Holmes whilst under
his employ ultimately results in her getting killed. Things change on the day
of John Watson’s wedding, when Moriarty targets Holmes directly, it soon
becomes a race against the time with the peace of Europe at stake.
These
Sherlock Holmes movies take the odd approaches of being action comedies instead
of genuine mysteries. A fact which is even more prevalent in this film. The
identity of Moriarty is not a mystery, he’s a public figure and Sherlock knows
and is correct in the fact that he’s behind everything from the beginning, and
even before then.
That doesn’t
mean Sherlock doesn’t do detective work, but it’s a more active detective work
than the usual psychology and interviews that you see in a mystery. Sherlock
seems to notice the details when he enters the room, as the camera pans around
and gives you flashes of these details. It also means he dons a lot of disguises,
some rather questionable ones among them.
They do often throw you straight into the action, rather than setting it up before hand, this
happens twice in the first half of the movie as Sherlock saves 2 people (one of
whom is killed 5 seconds later but…) in different scenes without us knowing
that they needed saving until the trap was about to be sprung. Because of this
the pacing is usually quite fast, another interesting change from your
conventional mystery.
There aren’t
any major character arcs in this story like there were in the last one.
Sherlock remains his brilliant but highly eccentric self and Watson remains the
straight man to his antics. With them is Noomi Rapace’s Madame Simza Heron.
She’s… not that interesting, Irene Adler was a far more charismatic and
complex, and she’s killed off not far into this story. If the idea is each film
have film have one woman like a bond girl routine, they seemingly forget that Bond girls tend to be one-dimensional sex objects.
Jared
Harris’ portrayal of Moriarty is one of my favourite aspects of this movie.
He’s exactly as you’d expect the arch nemesis of Holmes to be. Calculating,
difficult to reach, harder to catch, cunning as they come and even manages to
borrow Holmes’ weak spot combat trick. All of this makes the way he’s
ultimately defeated a little too convenient. He’d really carry a book of such
value on his person, and he’d only just noticed its theft.
The action
is solid but nothing I haven’t seen better in other action films. The
choreography and editing are watchable, which is more than I can say for a lot
of films to be fair.
Because of
the increased scope, much of the film takes place outside of London, I dunno,
it didn’t quite feel right, especially when they mentioned the semi-incompetent Detective from
the last movie who hadn’t shown up until this point.
The comedy
is generally good but has a few misses also, they introduce us to Sherlock’s
brother, Mycroft Holmes (Steven Fry) and there’s a scene where he has to stand
there naked in front of Watson’s wife and it’s awkward and not especially
funny.
The banter
between Holmes and Watson remains funny. Although it may lean a little too
heavily into the bromance for some people, I’m not one of them.
Sherlock
Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a good follow-up to the first Sherlock Holmes
movie, it increases the scale but brings little new to the table and backs down
on the character arcs. Still, solid action, a memorable set of performances and
snappy dialogue are enough to keep me entertained.
Rating
70/100
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