Lacks the Spark that Made the First Film Great

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2011)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was a bit of a disappointment. While by no means a bad movie, it just didn't have the spark of the original.
The point of Sherlock Holmes has always been the fact that he really doesn't care about much other than solving his latest mystery. That's why he has no friends aside from Watson, what few romantic relations he's had have always been a bit screwed up, and he's addicted to drugs. While the first movie didn't quite capture those elements to the degree that they could have been (see the TV series House if you want the best version of Sherlock Holmes ever put to screen) they were still present and the film understood Holme's character. This movie doesn't understand Holmes. It tries to play him off as a heroic figure, which was never the point. Holmes doesn't solve crime out of moral obligation or a sense of heroism, he does it for the thrill of solving a new mystery, it's a game for him and one of the few things he truly enjoys.
The story this time around was solemn and heavy-handed and didn't allow itself to be fun like the first film was; the mystery was not very compelling and, in fact, hard to follow for most of the movie; but perhaps the biggest issue in the film was the wasted presence of one of literature's most well-known villains. Professor Moriarty, while played very well by Jared Harris, was a let down as a villain. Until the end of the movie, his conflict with Holmes didn't feel like two of the greatest minds of all time locked in a battle of wits. You weren't even really sure why this guy was supposed to be a villain outside of the fact that the movie told you he is.
I noticed that this time around there was a different writing team for the film which makes sense because the flaws in the movie felt like they came from the screenplay. The cast was just as good as last time, the direction was fine, but the focus of the story just wasn't there. I would definitely give this film another watch and suspect I'll appreciate it more the second time, but I can't recommend seeing it in theaters. Pick it up at Redbox when it comes out on Blu-Ray. In the mean time, go see Mission: Impossible or The Muppets again.
C+