A letdown

Rating: 5/10 (23 December 2011)

This movie was the most disappointing movie I have seen in recent memory. Not because it was horrible, it wasn't. Rather because the first movie was one my favorite movies of the last decade. I loved the occult/mystery angle, Mark Strong's absolutely delicious turn as the arch-villain, Rachel McAdams turn as the decidedly sexy and ambivalent heroine/villainess, Robert Downey's descent in drug induced madness to catch the villain, the Holmes/Watson dysfunctional co-dependency, it all worked wonderfully and was incredibly fresh in my opinion. This movie had none of that. It was, rather, a steampunk version of a James Bond movie. Holmes' analytical violence was rendered silly as he is now endowed with such superhuman strength and speed as there really was no point to thinking about his opponents moves. Rachel McAdams makes only a cameo, and is replaced Noomi Rapace's character who seems to be their only to check off a box regarding a female demographic. The latent Holmes/Watson homoeroticism is cranked up to ten. There is no mystery angle, as Jared Harris' Moriarty is reduced to a SPECTRE conspiracy mastermind. I literally found myself nodding off around the 1:45 mark. If you're up for a steampunk James Bond movie, I guess this is OK. But know it has none of the originality that made the 1st movie so special.