It's guy love, that's all it is

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2011)

After the surprise hit that was Sherlock Holmes in 2009 Warner Brothers quickly commissioned a sequel. And like most sequels A Game of Shadows follows the rule of do everything the works in the first film and do it bigger. So has Warner Brothers got a new Batman or Harry Potter series or is it going to sink? In 1891 France and Germany have been suffering from a series of bombings and about to go war with each other because of it. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is investigating Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), a mathematics professor, a friend of the British Prime Minister and the centre of a international conspiracy which involves bombings, assassinations and business takeovers. Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) is about to marry his fiancé Mary (Kelly Reilly) but after Moriarty tries to kill him both Sherlock and Watson have to go to Europe to stop Moriarty and the continent going to war with the help of Gypsy psychic Sim (Noomi Rapace).
Guy Ritchie can be a visually impressive director and seems to have joined Warner Brothers list of go to directors, along with Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder. But Ritchie is a director who needs to be kept on a tight leash because he can over stylise and over complicate films. That's what happened with Revolver and even with Rocknrolla which a less is more approach was more appropriate. He has fallen into that trap again with his Sherlock Holmes sequel, the film that did save his career. The plot should have been simple, Moriarty is buying up a range of industries could he could profit from a world war. But Ritchie and his screenwriters seem to ignore this, only providing the audience necessary information until the very last minute and this was a film that needed to be more torter. Many elements could have been shaved and made the film trim action comedy in the 1 hour 45 minute to 1 hour 50 minute range. The action scenes are still impressive but it seems that Ritchie had to make everything bigger, such as the sequence in the forest where artillery is being fired at our heroes. A scene I personally really liked was the final fight. The whole plan itself is even bigger then Sherlock Holmes which was a mystery. This time Sherlock has to stop a war that could engulf the world.
Downey and Law are still a strong double act and their banter is funny and natural. They continue as Downey being the ecstatic and Law the straight and it was believable that they worked together for years with their love hate relationship. I personally like how Watson is made even more confident and capable as both a fighter and investigator. He is almost like a protégé for Holmes. The homoerotism between the two not even hidden or subtle and they as well sleep together: its what they really want. But in the film Sherlock does get something wrong, and seeing that he is a man who never gets anything wrong that should have played on his conscience and cause self-doubt. But that's just me.
Rapace is a very talented actress and it was a coup for the production to get someone like her, made famous from the Swedish Millennium Trilogy. But the picture the producer saying, 'we got that really talented Swedish actress to be in Sherlock Holmes 2' 'but what's she going to do?' 'ehh We'll think of something'. Despite a fun scene where she throws knives at an assassin she does not do much to help the blokes, she is just there to be a token female character. Her part could have been written out and it would not have made a different to the plot and despite Rapace's best efforts she was wasted.
A number of big actors were linked to role of Moriarty, Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt and Javier Bardam being some of them. It was a plum role for the relevantly unknown Harris to get and he does a good job throughout as the villain. His particular highlights was a dark scene when he tortures Sherlock and the final clash of minds between the two characters during a chess game. I wished the filmmakers played more of the idea that Moriarty is both Sherlock's intellectual equal and also an anti-Sherlock, someone willing to use his intelligence to commit crimes. He should have been a dark Sherlock, willing to kill and torture and do anything to achieve his goals.
Overall Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is entertaining enough and a deeply faulted film. I wish it was a bit more of a mystery, a complex case Sherlock and Watson have to solve then an action adventure comedy.
6.5 out of 10