Excellent sequel

Rating: 8/10 (13 April 2019)

This review contains spoilers.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a period mystery film that premiered in 2011. The movie is directed by Guy Ritchie and is the follow-up to 2009's Sherlock Holmes movie that is also directed by Guy Ritchie. Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams reprise their roles as Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, and Irene Adler. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson embark on an adventure across Europe to foil a plot by Professor Moriarty.
This sequel is incredibly entertaining and enjoyable. Anyone that enjoyed the first movie's style and direction will also enjoy the direction in this second installment of A Game of Shadows. If anyone is on the fence about the direction in the first movie this second movie absolutely improves upon it. The action scenes still have that slow motion slow-down and speed up however there is more of a reason for this choice in this movie. These scenes are used more to highlight the perill the main characters find themselves in. They are also executed in more of an entertaining fashion in this movie.
There is a strange misstep in this move that happens at the beginning. It is revealed that Irene Adler played by Rachel McAdams is working for Moriarty. She is immediately poisoned and dies. It felt weird that she was given a part of the main cast even though she was not present for much of the movie. That scene was a good way of introducing the main villain of Moriarty.
Montarty is a fantastic villain in A Game of Shadows. This is how I imagined Moriarty from the novels. Moriarty is a terrific villain in his writing, presentation, and execution. Moriarty's plans are well written in the execution and it is great to see them unfold on the screen. When Moriarty and Holmes do one last duel it definitely had an epic feeling of two intellectuals clashing. Everything up until that point had a lot of build up for Holmes to stop the plan of Moriarty.
Noomi Rapace joins the main cast of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as a Gypsy traveler. I enjoyed her character, but I still missed Irene Adler. Noomi Rapace does a good job in the role. I did not think the writing of her character was the best. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law does a
fantastic job and they continue to nail the role of Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson.
I would recommend 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.' This is a solid adventure mystery movie with a great period theme to it.
Grade: B