*MAJOR SPOILERS*
Really excited to write this review. Although my score might not reflect it, this movie was really good. Personally, even better than the first one! Now on with the review..
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a 2011 action/mystery film directed by Guy Ritchie, and is the second of two films starring Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes. The plot follows the events of the previous film as Sherlock Holmes is following the trail of Professor Moriarty (played by Jared Harris), as he tries to instigate full on war.
So lets start off by talking about what makes A Game of Shadows better or worse than the previous installment. Honestly, it was a mixed bag for me. I felt the the villain in this film was insanely good, but the film suffered from some minor issues due to pacing. The reason as to why Moriarty’s character was such a great villain is mainly because he was on the same level as Sherlock, and was just as good if not better than Holmes himself. There’s a scene at the end of the movie where both Holmes and Moriarty are doing their slow motion fighting tactic (which is awesome) and they go back and forth through thought driven dialog trying to out smart the other. In the end we see that Sherlock is ultimately the weaker (physically) of the two and would lose the battle. After a second of thought, Holmes plays dirty and grabs Moriarty and then jumps off the ledge with him in his arms. That scene was awesome, and just felt so organic as the twist came out of nowhere. Where I felt this movie fell short from the previous film was that the first and half of the second act was just kind of dull. There wasn’t much action or mystery solving being done, and I feel that really took away from half of the film. This is a Sherlock Holmes movie after all.
One thing that really surprised me in this film was the visual effects. There was some really great moments in this film were time is slowed down and it really gives a sense of tension. There is a scene when they’re all running towards the train and you just see bullets wiz by characters in the woods. You see trees explode and.. Ah! It’s just really good. They also had an odd camera angle where it almost looked like a GoPro was attached to the actor’s shoulders as they were running. It was such a cool shot, and very under appreciated I thought. The CGI wasn’t out of this world, but it never took me out of the film like most movies on the SyFy channel do.
As for sound? Eh.. Hans Zimmer’s score didn’t feel as good as the one featured in the previous film. I don’t know the reason behind that, but it just wasn’t as prevalent or memorable as the previous film. Doesn’t mean it was bad, it just wasn’t as good. That being said, the sound design in this film was good from what I could tell. I’m not a huge buff when it comes to sound design, but I’m good enough to tell you if was horrible or not. And A Game of Shadows definitely was not horrible in its sound design.
Now for the crown jewel of this film.. The acting. Wow. Downey is just fantastic, and his relationship with Jude Law, or Watson, feels genuine and real. They are honestly one of the best incarnations of the Holmes and Watson characters. The thing I really liked about this film was the progression of Holmes as character from start to finish. Unlike the first film, you tell he actually has some growth in the film and is a different person by the end of the film. But the real star of this film was Jared Harris, or Professor Moriarty. This guy was fantastic and was honestly an amazing choice for the antagonist in this film. Seriously, this guy was lucrative, scary, and just an all around awesome villain for this film. I mentioned it above, but he is just as good if not better than Sherlock on almost every level which makes the audience question who will actually come out victorious on the end. There were a couple times in this film where I thought to myself, “How the hell is Holmes going to get out of this?” And that is what honestly makes this movie so good. You never know what is going to happen next.
Now this paragraph is going to be a little all over the place, but please try to stay with me. I wanted to quickly talk about the end of this film. It’s great. Honestly, the twist at the end caught me by surprised and genuinely had me thinking that Sherlock was dead. Any movie that can convince you into thinking that the main protagonist is dead is a really well written film, and A Game of Shadows did exactly that. What a fantastic twist, and a great way to end the film (and possibly series). Now although I’ve given a lot of praise to this film, there are a few things I didn’t find so enjoyable. The pacing in the first act was slow, and continued its slow pacing all the way into the first half of the second act. I don’t know why, but this did not feel anything like a Sherlock Holmes kind of movie until the second half of the second act and onward. Another thing that I thought was weird was how Rachel McAdams never came back after her “death”. I don’t know if she actually died, but it was sort of abrupt. The fact that Holmes never spoke about it was even more odd, and it almost felt like McAdams didn’t want to do the film and just made the writers cut her out of it. Extremely weird to say the least.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was ultimately the better of the two films, and was honestly a fun and entertaining movie. Although the movie suffered from pacing issues in the first half of the film, the villain and twist definitely made up for the boring first half. And even though I wanted to give this film a “Very Good” on theVade Review Bar, an alright first half and a very good second half just don’t add up to be a “Very Good” in the end. So with that being said, I decided to give Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows a “Good” on theVade Review Bar. It is a fun film with one of the best villains I’ve ever seen, and yet it suffers from some minor pacing issues. But still go out and watch this film as the third installment might be on its way very shortly..
