Fun, but not without flaws

Rating: 7/10 (23 January 2012)

I'm not going to give you a scene-by-scene critique, just a few observations about this fun but flawed movie. It's been said that the second Sherlock movie lacks the witty banter of the first and is too frenzied for its own good, and I have to agree. The banter isn't terribly memorable and what little you get is jammed into action scenes that border on incomprehensible if not preposterous. The pace is breakneck, but I suspect it was necessary to cover up plot holes and distract viewers into not paying too close attention. The first movie was fast too, but not as frenzied and really allowed you to lose yourself in all the steam punk majesty of the art direction and score, which is evidence here as well. I just wish Ritchie would allow the audience to check out the details that are wasted on fast-cut flicks like this one.
In the first movie, we were treated to some really funny, smart homo-erotic bromance scenes, but in this movie you get a tarted up Holmes in drag encouraging Watson to get on top of him. Oh, how droll. What seemed subversive in the first movie, just seems like shtick in the second.
Then, we have poor Noomi Rapace (the original Lizbeth Salandar) who is completely wasted in the role of a gypsy fortune teller who rarely gets any lines.
Yet despite these shortcomings I still enjoyed the movie as popcorn entertainment, and I'm likely to watch it again if only to catch some of the stuff that flew by so fast the first time.