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Title: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents will want to take note that this can be VERY scary and has many violent images. There is also a fair amount of language and sexual content. Recommended for ages 14 and up. |
Though the stakes have risen since the previous film, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) has not gotten any more serious. Quite the contrary, he seems more goofy and aloof than before. This is strange considering his best friend Watson (Jude Law) is leaving him to get married and Holmes now has an intellectual match in his nemesis Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris). But halfway through “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” I learned to just let all the nitpicking go and enjoy the ride. No, this is still not what a modern Sherlock Holmes movie should be. The mystery is still frustratingly vague and the characters more eccentric than they should be.
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But, alas my dear readers, it is a better movie this time around, however slightly so. The major reason for this is the aforementioned Moriarty, who is more than a worthy antagonist for the man who can deduce you lived in Africa because of rare dirt on your sleeve. The story goes that Moriarty is planning some elaborate scheme to ignite a world war and sell guns to all the nations involved. Or so I was told. I honestly couldn't make heads or tails of the scheme, and I don't believe Holmes could either. Despite his intellect even HE had to stop and think things over long enough for them to make sense!
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Personally I don't think the major scheme is the whole point though. Indeed, Moriarty seems more interested in matching wits with Holmes in a cat and mouse game where the stakes result in little more than bragging rights about who the smarter person is. Likewise, Holmes doesn't seem as interested in the actual plot of the scheme so much as he is catching Moriarty in the act. This is a wild departure from the previous film where my major complaint was that the story wasn't developed enough to carry the film. With “Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows” we have a story that is even less strong yet in a movie that is much better.
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The real joy is watching two masterminds try to outwit each other and doing so with various levels of success. I suspect this will be a great movie for group outings that will go to a screening, cheer during certain exciting moments, and then all talk about scenes that they very well may soon forget at a Denny's afterwards. I also give props to Guy Richie for also fixing the art style so that the look of the film is more pleasant to the eyes rather than being the murky mess it was in the previous films. I did enjoy “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” and I suspect many people who go to this will too. That said, it comes out at a competitive time where there are far smarter and enjoyable movies to see, so a group setting may be the best way to experience this if you must at all. I'll you, my dear readers, deduce that for yourselves though.
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