Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows- PG-13

By Jonathan Goodsell

A Game of Shadows is the squeal to the 2009 Sherlock Holmes. Returning stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law take on the roles of Holmes (Downey) and Watson (Law) as they take on the mastermind criminal Professor Moriarty played by Jared Harris. The story once again follows Holmes and his shenanigans, disguises, and unorthodox techniques as he and Watson go head to head with the brilliant Moriarty and try to stop him from starting a premature world war.

Now, I'm personally a huge Robert Downey Jr. fan. I also really love watching Jude Law. So the two Sherlock Holmes movies have been one of my favorites of the past few years. I even went to the midnight premier for Game of Shadows. But now,enough about me. Downey played a brilliant Sherlock Holmes. He portrays, rather well, many of the characteristics of Holmes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books. Many disprove of Downey's portrayal and believe in Jeremy Brett's portrayal in the original Holmes films.Though through their differences, as they both are rather different, I believe they both did a great job and I full love and appreciate the artistic license used by both to personalize the character. But enough on my rant about Holmes, lets talk about the rest of the film. The rest of the acting was excellent. Jude Law once again did a good job with Dr. Watson, and Noomi Rapace did a fun job portraying the gypsy maiden Madam Simza. However, I was really disappointed in the killing off of Rachel McAdams character of Irene Adler. I really enjoyed her in the first movie, especially the extremely awkward love interest between her and Holmes. I was really excited for more in this one, only for them to get rid of her in the beginning scene. Oh well. Now for Jared Harris. His acting on Moriarty was absolutely stunning. He provided a true villain, a bad guy you could really love and hate, all at the same time. His equally strong intellect matched with Sherlock's was very fun to watch and kept you at the edge of the seat the whole movie.

The story line was pretty good in this one, though rather different from the first. Guy Ritchie, the director of both of the two films, did a great job of laying out the plot and leading you through in an entertaining and complete way. Some of what they put into it, a lot of the guns and weaponry portrayed in later scenes, weren't around during the time period portrayed. However it's an error I'm willing to look over as the main battle is probably the coolest scene in the whole movie. The usage of camera angles and equipment through out the whole film was very creative. The script was also well done and a lot of it extremely humorous, in continuity with the first film.

So in the end, the best part of the film was the casting and acting. Though the rest of the film was rather entertaining, I loved it. The show was rather mild for a PG-13 rating, yet still deserving. There are a number of fight scenes, a couple hand to hand with Holmes (similar to the first film) and one intense scene with guns and a lot of explosions. The worst scene though has to be a torture scene when Moriarty captures and interrogates Holmes. Though not bloody, it may be rather disturbing to some people. The language was mild, though there are a couple uses of mild exclamations. Guy Ritchie, in order to follow the books themes, wanted the characters to appear as a high class of English society and hence use high forms of language, meaning less foul language. Part of the movie is based around Watson marrying his fiance Mary from the first film, and there is a brief sensual scene on the way to there honeymoon. There is also a short scene where Sherlock's brother Mycroft, played excellently by Stephen Fry, is walking around his house nude. However, there are stacks of books and tables every where blocking your view of anything offensive. The scene is more for comedic relief. So all-in-all, the movie wasn't that bad. This isn't a movie for littler kids, but it is one one to be enjoyed by pretty much anyone else. So in my reviewer opinion, this movie had amazing acting and fun dialogue though it left a little to be expected, so I'm giving it a 8/10