It's that game, with all those shadows
So Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. If you didn't like the first one, you sure as hell aren't going to like the sequel, which is generally more of the same-martial arts, explosions, snark, and homoerotic subtext. So don't bother seeing it just to complain about how it missed the "spirit" or "point" of the Holmes stories, because you're just wasting everyone's time.
Now that's over with, to talk about the film. And that's just it-I was actually impressed by how it was a better film than the original. Plot-wise it's much more straight-forward, where events progress in a somewhat linear fashion and generally everything feels like it belongs. It's a very tidy movie. There really isn't much of a mystery, and that's a bit of a drawback, but it makes up for it in the fact that it doesn't pull plot details out of its ass. I've seen way too many movies where the clues were these little things that have no significance and make no sense together outside of the screenwriter's mind, who arranges them into something resembling a solution as if to say, "Look how clever I am!" Well screw it, in Game of Shadows everything feels like it belongs, the mental exercise is in figuring out what it all means.
Style-wise, Guy Ritchie definitely felt more free to insert his quick-cut, gritty style in there. There's a lot more of those moments where we go inside Holmes' mind during a fight and he breaks everything down, which was fun and a good way to break up what could be "yet another" action sequence. After seeing the commercials over-and-over again, I mentioned that the shots of them running through a forest while cannons are being fired was probably the centerpiece of the film, and it was. Visually the scene is pretty spectacular, though a bit cluttered. But the whole movie is pretty frenetic, and it holds together mostly because of the witty banter and snark between the two leads. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are hella fun to watch, and perhaps the best reason to watch these films.
Oh, and how much do I love Noomi Rapace in this film? Soooo much. Much more watchable than Rachel McAdams, who grated on me for reasons I cannot quite place. She was just the right amount of competent, which is to say she wasn't screaming helplessly nor was she some unrealistic superwoman. I like my girl power, but sometimes it crosses the point from empowering to precocious and annoying. Even Watson's wife was pretty great, because even though she was a total NPC, she didn't stand in a corner and scream, she made her rolls and then exited the story.
Overall it was a fun romp, sold mostly through Robert Downey Jr.'s quirkiness, which seems to be his shtick now (pretty much the entire reason to watch Iron Man), but hey, I don't think my time was wasted.
Now that's over with, to talk about the film. And that's just it-I was actually impressed by how it was a better film than the original. Plot-wise it's much more straight-forward, where events progress in a somewhat linear fashion and generally everything feels like it belongs. It's a very tidy movie. There really isn't much of a mystery, and that's a bit of a drawback, but it makes up for it in the fact that it doesn't pull plot details out of its ass. I've seen way too many movies where the clues were these little things that have no significance and make no sense together outside of the screenwriter's mind, who arranges them into something resembling a solution as if to say, "Look how clever I am!" Well screw it, in Game of Shadows everything feels like it belongs, the mental exercise is in figuring out what it all means.
Style-wise, Guy Ritchie definitely felt more free to insert his quick-cut, gritty style in there. There's a lot more of those moments where we go inside Holmes' mind during a fight and he breaks everything down, which was fun and a good way to break up what could be "yet another" action sequence. After seeing the commercials over-and-over again, I mentioned that the shots of them running through a forest while cannons are being fired was probably the centerpiece of the film, and it was. Visually the scene is pretty spectacular, though a bit cluttered. But the whole movie is pretty frenetic, and it holds together mostly because of the witty banter and snark between the two leads. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are hella fun to watch, and perhaps the best reason to watch these films.
Oh, and how much do I love Noomi Rapace in this film? Soooo much. Much more watchable than Rachel McAdams, who grated on me for reasons I cannot quite place. She was just the right amount of competent, which is to say she wasn't screaming helplessly nor was she some unrealistic superwoman. I like my girl power, but sometimes it crosses the point from empowering to precocious and annoying. Even Watson's wife was pretty great, because even though she was a total NPC, she didn't stand in a corner and scream, she made her rolls and then exited the story.
Overall it was a fun romp, sold mostly through Robert Downey Jr.'s quirkiness, which seems to be his shtick now (pretty much the entire reason to watch Iron Man), but hey, I don't think my time was wasted.