![]() ![]() The script forces characters to act completely unlike themselves for a laugh over and over again, with Sherlock himself suffering the most. ![]() When the film isn’t concerned with blowing stuff up, it focuses on making the audience laugh, and the results are painfully unfunny from start to finish, primarily because the majority of the jokes come at the expense of honest or accurate character development and interaction. It’s also worth noting that the amount and style of ammunition exchanged throughout is bafflingly anachronistic for 1891, but it’s a minor problem in the grand scheme of things. The story convolutes itself into knots trying to find openings for fights, shoot-outs, or explosions, creating a number of gaping plot holes in the process. The action is decent enough for what it is, but the set pieces are hollow, devoid of any narrative or character-based importance, manufactured only to thrill audiences on the most basic of levels. The formula becomes tiresome after the first half hour, and is only intensified as the film moves along. ![]() It aims to please only on the most visceral level, so we open with an extravagant set piece, pause for a few minutes of exposition undercut by terribly unfunny humor, jump into another bombastic action sequence, pause once more, go back to the action, etc. Unlike its predecessor or, indeed, Doyle’s original stories, it is not a mystery, nor an intellectual adventure, and contains no serious character examination or development. The key flaw in “A Game of Shadows” is the film’s inept tone: it is an action-comedy, through-and-through. My praise ends there, half-hearted as some of it may be. ![]() I preferred the more confident look of the first movie, though this sequel is no slouch in that department. Ritchie has extended his frame from the 1.85:1 lens used in the original movie to the wider 2.35:1 anamorphic frame, and at times seems unsure of how to fill the extra space. The acting across the board is fairly strong (though the writing does Downey no favors), and the visuals are once again splendid, if less so than the first time around. Their scenes together, few though they may be, are memorable highlights the film’s last sequence, in particular, is absolutely brilliant, thanks in no small part to Harris and Downey’s chemistry (and the script’s singular exhibition of intelligent writing). with a wonderful verbal sparring partner. Harris simply oozes intelligence and menace in equal measure, and provides Robert Downey Jr. Lest this review get too dark too quickly, let us cover the few truly standout elements of the movie: first and foremost, Jared Harris is simply terrific as Moriarty, just as I suspected he would be. It was one of my top ten films of 2009, and having watched it again today in preparation for the sequel, I was once again struck by what a creative yet faithful “Holmes” film Ritchie crafted. The ingeniously plotted narrative felt like an authentic Doyle story, if on a more cinematic scale, and the film’s production design, an impeccable recreation of Victorian London, displayed a truly remarkable mastery of mise-en-scene. It had its action beats, but they revolved around Sherlock’s intellect, and though sometimes humorous, the laughs came from organic character interactions. a bad movie only loosely connected to Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation – Ritchie instead delivered a smart, literate, stylish, and extremely thoughtful interpretation of the classic character. Though the advertisements promised everything mentioned above – i.e. For me, it is by far the greatest disappointment of 2011, because I loved Guy Ritchie’s first “Sherlock Holmes” film. “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” is everything we feared the first “Sherlock Holmes” would be before it was released in 2009: loud, obnoxious, overblown, action-riddled, overtly comedic, disrespectful to the source material, and above all, stupid in ways only a pandering American production could be. ![]()
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