'Observancy is a dying art.'

Rating: 5/10 (19 January 2012)

So sayeth the late, great Stanley Kubrick regarding the self-perceived genius of his final film. He was talking about the tiny details inserted into every scene of Eyes Wide Shut, leaving the sharp-eyed viewer with more questions than answers with every viewing. Sherlock Holmes' ability to notice these fine points, and the camera's ability to linger on them just long enough to give you a fighting chance of solving the problem before he does, is one of the few quality aspects of this film. As for the rest of it, A Game of Shadows adheres to the typical conventions of a sequel. That is, bigger, louder and more ambitious, but ends up being nowhere near as fun as its predecessor.
With Dr. Watson (Jude Law) happy to have the events of the past behind him, he makes plans for his long-overdue marriage. That is until news spreads regarding a series of mysterious bombings in and around London. Never one to work alone, Watson is again dragged into the deep end by the crafty Holmes (Robert Downey Jnr.). And so, with the help of Holmes' highly inappropriate brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) and Simza the gypsy (Noomi Rapace), they are led to Holmes' greatest adversary, the evil but equally cunning Moriarty (Jared Harris).
If that sounds more like a trailer blurb than a synopsis, it is because attempting to explain this plot in detail would only result in digging a deeper hole. One of the strengths of the first instalment (trying to steer away from the word 'original' here) was a plot that was balanced enough to keep the viewer's attention without seeming too simple, and allowing for some enjoyable interplay between the utterly immersive Holmes and Watson. This time around, however, director Guy Ritchie substitutes substance for style, placing great importance on keeping the film moving from place to place to place with very little deduction in between.
These efforts to keep the audience's mind occupied actually end up having negative effects, as the film degrades into more of a visual spectacle, and less of a romping mystery, with every passing scene. In fact, from the absurd set piece involving a firefight on a train halfway through the film, the rest of the story seems to almost give up on anything that could even be considered rational or believable. Suspension of disbelief is a key requirement when watching films like this, sure, but Shadows takes things to new levels of foolishness, wasting the chance to deliver a fresh, clever sequel.
Despite these occasionally over-the-top moments, the action is mostly well directed, albeit with a tendency to overuse slow motion and crash zooms at key moments. Holmes' re-imagining as an expert martial artist is still fun to watch, and his methods of predicting his opponent's entire move set before the fight has even begun are more refined in this film. His prior planning to prevent poor performance meets its match during the climax when we see Moriarty studying Holmes in the same way, resulting in the film's best moment by a long margin.
Speaking of our hero's arch-nemesis, Moriarty's presence is disappointingly underwhelming. The best villains are able to invoke a feeling of dread even when off-screen, but it seems this much-lauded mastermind is content to be the office general; watching the good guys fight off hordes of faceless henchmen while he sits in his swivel chair, stroking his cat and practicing his best 'I've been expecting you.' Again, this is not the actor's fault- the character simply suffers from inadequate screen time to develop a truly menacing persona, while other insignificant side characters clog up the scenery (not including Rapace's Simza, who has the whole hippie-gypsy dread thing going on to great effect).
But, for all its pitfalls, it would be unfair to give this film anything less than a straight average score, particularly in the light of almost all other blockbuster franchises still alive today. Yes, RDJ's characterisation has regressed from 'charmingly pompous' to 'borderline psychopath' in the last two years, but he and Law still try their darndest to make it work.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review.*