Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

[ShaOW!linDude]

Here's a trailer for the 2nd SH movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. Looks like Downey gets to use a bit of his Wing Chun again in this. I loved the 1st one and can't wait to see this one in December.

[AlbertV]

New posters

[daisho2004]

Yeah I loved the 1st. movie also, so I cannot wait to see this one too.

[massa_yoda]

Saw this movie today and it was pretty awesome. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law were great together once again. Awesome villain. And there's way more Guy Ritchie-style camera-work. There's even a bullet-time action scene in the woods that was well done. I actually want to watch just that scene again because visually it was very interesting. The action is overall pretty well handled, with a couple extended hand-to-hand moments when Holmes is going through the fights in his head. More of a slow down, speed up type camera work. Overall good story, good characters, and a great ending! Recommended.

[thehangman]

I saw it friday enjoyed it liked the 1st one alittle more but still good and some good action scenes

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011: Guy Ritchie) ***½/****:

I am a fan of Guy Ritchie’s aesthetics in films though I’ve missed a good part of his career in the middle. I have seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and both Sherlock Holmes, but missed Swept Away, Revolver and RocknRolla which many critics and reviewers tend to dismiss. What I like is his dialogue, the smarmy and sarcastic characters and his penchant for interesting camera work. He has a style which I find fascinating and entertaining.

Some of the arguments against both films tend to do with the lack of authorial fidelity which is quite common in cinema since it is a different medium and some critics lament that this updated version is not Basil Rathbone* (a series I personally love) or Jeremy Brett. Yes there is bastardization by Ritchie, but I feel in its reimagining of Holmes it does keep a sense of the character from the books not always seen in the cinema. Some of the reimagining is legitimate though. Would we want to see a late 19th century pugilist engage in fisticuffs (though I would not mind) or a more up-to-date boxer who incorporates moves not made popular until later (was that a triangle choke?). One could speculate that Holmes in his infinite wisdom picked on fighting styles from different cultures, though it would be unlikely (the deductive reasoning sometimes was a stretch in the books as well).

I find a particular beauty in the kinetics of this film. A style that I do not find chaotic for the sake of being chaotic, but it is a sagacious mix of montage, CGI, use of variable speeds and use of foreground/background depth in these scenes. If this was on DVD/BD I could do a David Bordwellian snapshot approach to showing what I consider sublime.

The homosocial byplay between Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes and Jude Law’s Watson highlight the film. I am not sure it goes into as much homoerotic behavior (yes a triangle choke can be considered homoerotic) as some of the reviewers’ state, but there is some tension there – though possibly just because of Holmes attachment and fear of losing Dr. Watson.

I easily prefer the antagonist here than the first film with the incomparable Dr. Moriarty (Jared Harris: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) playing a deadly tête-à-tête while spouting verbal witticisms with Holmes throughout – ultimately ending in a literal chess game. I find the dual nature of Moriarty fascinating. I wonder if he keeps his worlds separate and does not let his maniacal penchant for evil world domination disrupt his teaching. Those characteristics do come in handy with dealing with students.

Random thoughts: I did not realize until recently that Noomi Rapace (Madam Simza Heron) was the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Urban camouflage – that was cool. Will there be a third film?

* It is interesting to note that while Basil Rathbone made the calabash pipe famous and equating it with Holmes, the character never smoked this pipe. The Sidney Paget illustrations had him smoking a churchwarden. Here is an interesting read on the subject.

[inframan]

My wife dragged me to it. I hadn't seen the first one so I didn't know he was a kung fu master now. I kept wondering why when any action started happening it looked like Sam Raimi was suddenly behind the camera, then I saw the end credits: Guy Richie, made sense then.

I thought it was pretty good for a hollywood film. Worth watching.

[BaronK]

No good. Love the first one. If its ever on I watch it no matter how far into the movie it is. This one, what was that.
Aimless. I looked down and it was an hour into and it hadn't done anything yet. The first was fun and funny. This was not. The first played the first villain while laying the seeds for the second. This didn't really ever focus on the villain. Just felt like the madcap adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Terribly unfocused and bloody long. If you use 2 hours, do something with it.