Review of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

And here we are again, yet another sequel of a movie that did so well the first time. Guess what? It is an excellent sequel. You simply put two elements, and not necessarily two opposite elements, and the chemical reaction between them causes an enormous explosion on the BIG screen.

I saw the trailers and I was skeptical in the beginning but this was one movie I wouldn't miss watching on big screen. Once again, the production values are top-notch. The effects are outstanding, and the cinematography is top-notch.

Downey and Law have a solid on-screen chemistry, while Fry does a terrific job as comic relief. Casting Noomi Rapace for Simza's character came as a shocker to me after watching her perform in The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo trilogy (the original Swedish version of the newly English remake). However, I enjoyed watching her in English.

In the novels, Holmes was skilled as a pugilist and excellent at weapons handling. Fortunately, Ritchie realized this both in the first and second movie which is something rare, given his filmography. As with almost all Guy Ritchie films, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is technically strong, with the look and feel of the film, consistent from that of the first, being one of the winning elements in my books.

Incredibly detailed and intricately crafted, the sets, costumes, CG and production values are all top notch in transporting us back to an era that once was. The multiple flashback scenes that showcase how we get to where we are at the point of the narrative, and those events that play out in Holmes' mind, were all done with precision as we cue in to his thought process, and one of the plus points is that of Moriarty's input at times when it got boiled down to an intense battle of minds. And not forgetting Hans Zimmer's powerful score that's a natural companion piece from the first film.

There is one element I somehow can't get over with and that is how similar this movie is to another movie we have watched and maybe forgotten some time ago. Does something wild and out of the West rings a bell? I know it might not be a good and honest comparison, but there are similarities like train scene, one character dressing up as a woman(Kevin Kline in Wild, Wild West and Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes), big guns, someone naked in front of a group or a woman and so on. However, this doesn't mean those similarities reduces the value of the movie. It is just something I noticed.