Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

I was excited for this movie and it did have fun moments but it was not as good as the first film. With sequels, it is very hard to take what audiences loved about the first adventure and use it again in a fresh way. Those working on “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” created some fun moments and the movie ends on a great note but unfortunately, it was not as fun or entertaining as the original.

“Game of Shadows” had different writers than the first movie and I believe that caused problems. This story decision that really ruined things for me was the decision to kill off Irene. Part of the fun of the first film was the relationship she and Holmes had. The opening of the film was fun because of her presence but her replacement, Sim, provided no fun in terms of my taste. She felt a little flat like unto her computer family counterparts. Also for drama sake, Holmes could have shown a little more heartbreak over Irene's death. Her poisoning may have been written in the script to make Moriarty evil in our eyes from the start but this did not really work for me. This brings me to the portrayal of the villain of this sequel. The previous film established Moriarty as mysterious and cold like unto Lord Blackwood but in a different way. Jared Harris wasn’t really as cold as Mark Strong and he certainly wasn’t mysterious. Another fun element of the first film was that the antagonist portrayed evil, mystery and coldness very well. Instead of dealing with a magician in the sequel, Holmes is dealing with an evil twin of himself as it were. That change was also not as fun. The meetings between Holmes and Moriarty are neat scenes in that they hearken back to classic battles of the brains. However, Mark Strong was a much better bad guy. A fun element of the first film that was reprised was “Holmes-vision”. The difference this time is that Holmes’ foresight is proven incorrect by way of external factors. I found that a little anti-climatic. The only time it worked was the climax and I will address that later. The flight from the war factory was cool in terms of the slow motion, editing and cinematography. Unfortunately, it got a tad too surreal. The use of flashbacks was good but the marketing team made a mistake that affected things. The trailer revealed Holmes dressed as a lady on the train so the flashback of him sabotaging the bullets of the soldiers was not as surprising as when he follows Irene in the first show. I will say that “Game of Shadows” did a great job of showing very important plot points in an inconsequential way like unto the original film. This made for a great climax, as did the unpredictability of the plot. The chess game made the ending quite fun and full of tension. I also love the surprise of how Holmes foiled and then kills Moriarty. The epilogue was also really funny and cool. I don’t think I am all that excited for a third film however because it seems like this version of Sherlock Holmes has run its course. The movie also did not contain a fun musical score like last time. Hans Zimmer’s work was less like the first film and more like his cliché sound that he produces for other films. It lacked originality.

The story of “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” doesn’t follow the same classic detective story format that we loved about the first film. Things we loved from the last time were repeated but their reinvention was not perfect. Those working on this movie did a better job than those who made the “National Treasure” sequel but they should have learned from what Christopher Nolan did with “The Dark Knight”. Despite its shortcomings, I have faith that this movie will fare better than “Avatar 2”.

3.5 Stars