"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shaodws" starts off on a sour note, with a weak first act, but once the pace picks up, the Finale makes up for it!

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2012)

Guy Ritchie's 2011 sequel "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" is a bit of an oddball film. I adored the 2009 film, and thought that Ritchie and his stars (Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) did a great service to the character- delivering a fresh take on it, at least in comparison to previous films, while still maintaining a classic mystery story. However, 40 minutes into this one, I was ready to fall asleep. The first act of the film has its moments, but felt extremely sloppy and thrown together. I actually hated it, and that's quite a feat, as I generally love films, and am very hard to not please.
However, I am glad to say that once the film hits the halfway point, something happened- the pace picked up, the characters fell back into stride, and everything seemed to fit together much better. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place, and the film worked darned well. I fell in love with the characters again, and in particular, the finale was amazing. So, I am happy to report that despite a shaky beginning, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" ended up being a good, fun film. Not quite as good as the first, but still a lot of fun.
The plot is a bit hard to follow (mainly due to the somewhat-sloppy first act), but the plot boils down to this- Sherlock (Downey Jr. is perfect... 'nuff said) finds himself in a battle of wills against Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris in a chilling performance), whom is hatching a scheme of some sort, which may lead to a worldwide war from which he would profit. It's pretty basic- Sherlock must stop the villain. It's simple, but it works, mostly. (Although a few subplots involving Moriarty's henchman, and other aspects of his plan seem slightly convoluted.)
The acting all around is marvelous. Like I said, Downey Jr. is perfect- when is he not? Jude Law is a lot of fun as Watson. Jared Harris makes a great foe for Holmes, and comes off as someone you both despise and admire. Kelly Reilly as Mrs. Watson is fiery and fun. Noomi Rapace as the gypsy woman is interesting, though a little under-utilized. Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes was hilarious, though a bit over-the-top. I even liked Rachael McAdams in her cameo of Irene Adler. (I'm one of the few people who didn't hate her in the first film, although this just may be the fact that I have a massive crush on her.) The acting is all solid.
The action was a step up. From a fun chase sequence involving an assassin at Watson's bachelor party, to a massive sequence where Holmes must outrun artillery fire from an army, it is all magnificent. Although I must complain slightly about the use of "Holmes vision" in this movie. I am referring to the "slow-motion" moments in the first film where we enter Sherlock's head, and hear him plan out his moves. It didn't seem to work as well in this movie. In fact, the first time it happens, I wasn't sure what was happening, as it was stylized a bit differently in this film. I wish they had stuck with the way it was in the first film.
The film was shot beautifully, and the music was all suitably magnificent. From a technical standpoint, this is a very well-made film.
So I am going to go back and address my initial complaint a bit more. That is, the sloppy first act. Something about this film just felt a little forced. It felt like the director and writers knew that there was a quota and formula for films like this, and just followed the basic outline. It didn't have much heart for the first 40 minutes. I could have sworn Ritchie was running down a checklist: "Uh, I guess we need a small pre-credit fight sequence... check. A first act chase scene, I guess we can throw one in. Make the humor more blatant. Check." It was too sloppy and formulaic.
However, like I said, the film does reach a point where, all of the sudden, everything started to fall together. And once it picks up, I was able to forgive a lot of the mistakes of the film.
I'm giving "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" a 7 out of 10. The first part of the film kinda sucked, but once it picked up, it became a treat, and fit right back in with the fun tone of the original. If you're a fan, go see it!