Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows!

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011)
Starring: Robert Downy, Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Noomi Rapace
Directed By: Guy Ritchie

The holiday season is quickly becoming the new blockbuster are for studios, and this season is no exception. With the releases of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and newest Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movie, entitled A Game of Shadows. If the latest Holmes adventure is any indication, we've going to have a lot of fun this month at the multiplex.

The newest adventure for Holmes and Watson (Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, respectively) involves the duo matching wits with the infamous Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), all while Holmes deals with the fact that his brother from another mother Watson is a newlywed. Holmes, in the midst of trying to solve the evil Professor's latest scheme, is also at a loss dealing with the fact that his BFF Watson is moving on with his life. He's no longer rooming with him on Baker Street, and is not an active participant in his cases. Thankfully though, the two still have great chemistry together on screen, and in many ways, the scenes between RDJ and Jude Law are the highlights of the film, which is saying a lot since there are some spectacular action sequences in this film. 

Harris as Moriarty

In many ways, this is a sequel that improves on the original. The action is better, the characters are stronger since we know them already, and the villain is a lot stronger. I had no problem with Mark Strong in the previous film, but Jared Harris' Moriarty is awesome.  I always pictured Moriarty as a lot bigger than Holmes (probably cause I watched The Great Mouse Detective a lot as a kid), but within minutes I was sold on Harris. Moriarty is extremely intelligent (like Holmes), but also has a very imposing and intimidating look, all without really doing much. Guy Ritchie really nailed home the fact the Moriarty is a dark mirror of Holmes, a fact that I really appreciate as a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories. There are also some great nods to the original story that Moriarty appears in, "The Final Problem", and Holmes even refers to him as "The Napoleon Of Crime", just like in said story.

Rounding out the cast is Noomi Rapace as Simza Heron, a gypsy who's brother has ties to Moriarty, and Stephen Fry as Sherlock's older brother Mycroft. Both are great additions to the cast, and I was really impressed by Rapace, as this was my first exposure to her work (I know, I know, I still haven't seen the Swedish Dragon Tattoo films).  She may not have had a lot to do with the action scenes, but she was still a good macguffin to get Holmes and Watson to go after Moriarty.

There are a lot of people that cried foul when Sherlock Holmes came out over the fact that Sherlock Holmes was a "brawler". This really bothered me, because Doyle states in many of his Holmes' tales that he can fight, and even enjoys a good scrap or two. Needless to say, if you were one of those people who didn't enjoy seeing Holmes take out some goons by analyzing their weak points in slow-mo, then you probably won't like this one any better. I for one, enjoy it, mainly because Holmes SHOULD know how to defend himself when working on crimes, and the fighting style presented in these films (Holmes observing his enemies quickly and predicting their strikes) is EXACTLY how someone who thinks like him would fight, and I really enjoy watching him kick ass. The "fight" between Holmes and Moriarty towards the end of the film is awesome, and I love how it showed that they both can not only fight, but are also equals in terms of intelligence.

BFFS

Robert Downey, Jr. is once again extremely entertaining as Holmes, and Jude Law's Watson is the ultimate straight man to his antics. If you're a fan of the original, you owe it to yourself to see this one, it blows the other out of the water.

3 1/2 pipes out of 4