Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011) – Review

After Guy Richie, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law delivered their predictably bombastic take on Athur Conan Doyle’s legendary sleuth, the notion of a sequel coming along sooner rather was fairly… elementary. After all, Richie’s jittery flashy style mixed with the sort of weapons grade charisma that, if channeled correctly, could conceivably bring about world peace, meant that the notion of the buddy action movie got a cool, Victorian facelift like a steampunk Lethal Weapon.
Sure, the movie traded in blockbuster dumb rather than literary smarts and instead of the usual fingering of the killer in a crowed drawing room (ooer), we got huge explosions and bruising fist fights, but Sherlock Holmes proved to be a lot of fun. However, even though the sequel would finally introduce Holmes’ scheming nemesis, Professor Moriarty, could A Game Of Shadows managed to keep this fledgling franchise in the Iight?
Game. Afoot. Etc.

While Dr. John Watson continues to prepare for his uncoming nuptials with his wife to be, Mary Morstan, eccentric big brain Sherlock Holmes continues to obsess about the shadowy mastermind who seems to be lurking at the edges of many of the cases he’s whizzing around and solving. The latest involved thwarting a bombing of a prominent surgeon and with the help of Irene Adler, a onetime employee of the mystery plotter, and it’s at this point that the arch villain decides to take charge of the situation.
Removing Adler from the board with ruthless efficiency, James Moriarty, a fiendishly intelligent professor-turned-criminal mastermind now turns his attention to hurting Holmes in the most bruising way he can think off. Naturally, with the relationship between Holmes and Watson as rocky as ever, he targets Watson and his wife as they travel to their much earned honeymoon, from there, everything promptly goes tits up. After virtually destroying a train, but not before hurling Mary out of the locomotive to (sort of) safety, Holmes insists that to get the necessary proof to bringing Moriarty to justice, the pair will have to unravel and thwart his dastardly plot.
Thus begins a race across Europe in order to scupper assassinations, enlist knife-twirling gypsy fortune teller Madame Simza and attempt to put paid to a plan that will ultimately see all of Europe go to war and Moriarty cackling all the way to ill gotten riches. But even if Sherlock and Watson manage to uncover this weaponry-based conspiracy, will their devious enemy be careless enough to leave a shred of evidence to find?

Most sequels either improve on their original installment or overload things by mucking up the stuff that works, but Guy Richie’s follow up to his first big budget somehow manages neither, yet simultaneously does both. What I mean by that needlessly complex phrase is that while he succeeds in improving some aspects that previously needed it, he falters on others aspects that he already got right the first time.
Firstly, the insane amount of chemistry displayed by the central pairing of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law is still as overwhelmingly potent as ever and the film even manages to cheekily dial up the humourous implied homoeroticism that always hangs in the air of a good buddy movie. Not only is Holmes’ jealousy of the “other woman” (Kelly Reilly still barely holding her own) as virulent as ever, but the bickering old couple dynamic of the two now encompasses a stint in drag and a moment where a shirtless RDJ demands his partner “lay with him” in order to avoid a fullicade of gunfire. It was tremendously fun in 2009 and it’s still tremendously fun here, but once again, that age-old problem arries that almost everyone else is essentially blown off the screen once again. However, while the casualties include Noomi Rapace’s fiery gypsy and Paul Anderson’s sharp shooting henchman, this time a couple of cast members manage to weather the devastating charm offensive with style. Firstly, Stephen Fry’s pathologically snooty Mycroft Holmes stands out thanks to a derisive sneer and a random, extended nude scene, but the other survivor proves to be far more subtle.

I love Mark Strong, but let’s be honest, his Lord Blackwood was hardly a memorable antagonist; so A Game Of Shadows ups the ante by letting Moriarty off the leash in the form of the silken-voiced Jared Harris, who, in the face of RDJ’s capering, turns in a quiet, self assured, criminal mastermind who oozes subtle menace instead of frantically chewing scenery. He may not hit the villians heights of, say, Hannibal Lector, but between shadowy threats and top hatted glares he scores some major hits by taking out a cameoing Rachel McAdams shockingly early and later torturing Holmes with a meat hook while serenading him with a spot of Schubert.
However, with an improved villain in place and some much bigger bangs set to go off in the larger scaked action sequences, the location shift to Europe makes A Game Of Shadows look far less distinctive than its predecessor. A mad chase through a forest bullet-proof forrest that has Ritchie concocting all sort of weird shots and edits is exciting, but it doesn’t have the visual punch of that final brawl set in the skeleton of a half-built Tower Bridge, although the chase and an extended set-piece on a train shoes that the director has gained far more confidence marshalling huge action beats.
However, while its plot is noticably way more forgettable that the first film, A Game Of Shadows pulls it all back in its finale that, for a franchise that seems to be jettisoning a lot of the established tropes (still no deerstalker to be seen), hues admirably close to established Holmes lore. Yep, we get a final show down between Holmes and Moriarty that takes place at the infamous Reichenbach Falls that audaciously has the two fight to the death in their imaginations as they both calculate the fight to its natural conclusion before a single punch is even thrown. Usually, this sort of thing ends up being a bit of a rage inducing cop out (the imaginary climax of Twight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 being a massive offender), but Richie manages to make it feel like a life or death chess game as the two mentally call their moves and it proves to be immensely satisfying.

While Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows is a sequel that neither betters or fails its predecessor (lets call it an equal sequel), it’s still a ton of fun and it certainly doesn’t explain while a long mooted third movie has been writhing in development Hell for over a decade. But even if this incarnation of Holmes and Watson fail to ride again, at least we got a couple of adventures out of this dumber, but funnier version.
Not shit, Sherlock.

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