Good Stuff

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2011)

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Much better than the first film. Downey Junior plays a much more eccentric Holmes to good effect. His play-off's with Law are good with some nice comical touches. Jared Harris is a great addition to the cast, playing the inscrutable Moriarty with the right amount of menace & intelligence without going anywhere near pantomime territory. Paul Anderson is good as Moriarty's chief sidekick but both the female leads are somewhat pointless and whilst there's nothing wrong with the acting from Rapace & Reilly they are pretty superfluous in the grand scheme of things.
Ah, the Stephen Fry character, Mycroft Holmes, is - well, in my opinion, it just about works, it certainly works better in the first half of the film than in the second, although there is a good comedic scene with Kelly Reilly later in the film. I think Fry could be utilised better in the next episode.
The action scenes are great as is the cinematography.
The main irritant I have with the film, and it's been mentioned in other reviews, is the use of the slow-mo in all the action scenes. It's simply used too much to be truly effective, it works in the scene when running through the woods but elsewhere it's overdone, something Ritchie needs to curb in the next episode.
All in all a good attempt but could do better