Sherlock Holmes, the world’s most famous detective is back a second time around in SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS, if you like Holmes’ ability to figure out the next move, epic slo-mo fight scenes and overall mystery and suspense, then this movie is worth your $10.
SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS starts off where the first one left off, it was said in the first one that there was someone as smart as Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) but used his intelligence for evil, and his name was Profesor James Moriarty (Jared Harris). The movie begins with a series of bombings happening across the globe and the mysterious death from the Prince of Austria, and Holmes is trying to find out who is behind them. In the meantime, one day as he sees Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) delivering a suspicious package, he finds out inside the package there is a bomb and a note, he manages to detonate the bomb and keep the note. The note was directed to Madame Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace) whom Holmes tracks down at Dr John Watson’s (Jude Law) bachelor party. The letter is from Simza’s brother and he warns her about terrible things that will happen and that all of the bombings are connected to someone. After Holmes saves Simza’s life, she offers to help them with what she knows in an adventure that will take them across Europe, from London to France, Germany and Switzerland. Along the way, they get some help as well from Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft Holmes (Stephen Fry). With his intelligence, Holmes finds out that it is Moriarty orchestrating everything, and he wastes no time, he gets Watson from his honeymoon and embark on a mission to stop Moriarty from whatever he’s doing. Now here’s the thing, Holmes has always been one step ahead of the enemy, but Moriarty is at times one step ahead of Holmes with a plan that could change history forever.
As always, with Sherlock Holmes it’s easy to figure out what the enemy’s next move will be, but what I liked the most about A GAME OF SHADOWS was the fact that we see that Holmes’ predictions aren’t always perfect, that now he has some major competition if he wants to preserve the peace of the world in early 1890’s. Moriarty and Holmes go head to head, and it takes a while for the viewer to find out what Moriarty’s plan really is. On the other hand, Holmes and Watson’s camaraderie is what makes the movie, that even when Watson tries to hate him for ruining his honeymoon, he can’t help but help out his friend in this adventure. However, as much as I liked watching both Downey Jr and Law on the screen, McAdams only lasted during the first 20 minutes of the movie if not less, and to me it seemed like it was pointless to even bring her into the story. Noomi Rapace was charming as Simza the gypsy, but due to all the running around Europe I felt like her part felt a bit short and it should have been more elaborate.
Furthermore, what I liked the most about the movie were of course the slo-mo fight scenes, Guy Ritchie does an amazing job putting these together, the one I liked the most is the one where Simza, Holmes and Watson are running around the forest that kept the whole audience curious, wanting to press a fast-forward button somewhere. The movie itself was very entertaining, Holmes with his silly costumes, Watson and his funny remarks as well as unveiling the mystery, kept me intrigued enough trying to find out Moriarty’s plan as much as Holmes wanted to.
SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS, is worth your money and time if you know exactly what you’re getting: Holmes’ logical reasoning, amazing fight scenes and a whole lot of suspense that will keep you thoroughly entertained, and all I have to say is that the world’s best detective isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
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