Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Artwork for Theatrical Release

It's been about a week since I've seen this film, and I already can remember very little of it, and I fear that what I can remember is probably from the trailers not the film proper.

One of the first things that jumped out at me was the relative shoddy quality of some of the aspects of the sets, in particular the fake weathered wood when Holmes is getting his butt handed to him in the alleyway at the beginning of the film.

All in all, the art direction reads too much like a textbook (read: bad textbook) thesis of post-Victorian fashion and interior design.

Maybe they're saving the budget for the rest of the film.

The editing is not as much fun as it was the first time around, and the slow-motion way that Robert Downey's eponymous character figures everything out, is still cool, but whereas in the first film it was instinctive and innovative, here it feels ill-advised and ill-executed.

I have said it before, and here alas, we go again, fast cutting is no replacement for good fast thinking rhetoric, and when it's paired with borderline bad acting, the bad editing is made ever more recognizable and cringe-worthy.

Maybe they're saving the really good editing for the awesome stuff to come.

Yay!

The script is unnecessarily complex and with too high a language for its target demographic, leading to a horrible mess that will leave neither older Sherlock fans happy, nor young people content.

Un-yay!

I was about a third of the way through the film before I realized that 1) the film was unnecessarily confusing and 2) I just didn't care.  That coupled with the fact that the main reason I watched this film, Rachel McAdams, had been killed in the first 15 minutes, in an oh-so pathetically horrible fashion, made me want to turn the freaking thing off.

As a side note, I would have preferred a re-imagining of her actually dying in the bridge collapse from the first film.  Which consequently, is the only part of that film I can actually remember distinctly, which bodes not well for it since what I remember most vividly is the crappy CGI in that scene.

Maybe they were saving the budget for an even more kick-ass actress.

Come on Natalie Portman cameo!

As reprieve, once the plot is set in motion, three quarters of the film in (sigh), the action is actually pretty good and enjoyable, although again as mentioned in a previous post (The Island):  A vehicle, in this case a train, that has had two massive explosions, including one that cut the train in half, would at some point notice and stop, no...anyone out there listening...Michael Bay!

But who knows, maybe they were saving their 35mm film reel budget for kick-ass things to come.

Funny, my notes end there.

And that's the problem with the film.  For the amount of money spent on it, it is no more enjoyable than the first, and even more forgettable.

Maybe they were saving their budget for the next film.

Maybe they'll forget to make it.

Please don't buy this film, wait for TBS to run it when the third film careens towards your local multiplex.

If you're a fan of Sherlock, there's a new CBS series with Lucy Liu and PBS is currently running occasional episodes of the British modern remake of the series which is brilliant.