Jude Law
Noomi Rapace
Jared Harris
Stephen Fry
Kelly Reilly
Rachel McAdams
One thing you have to love about A Game of Shadows is the pitch
with which it starts. The touch of comedy makes it enticing to the eyes and
ears. With over 2 hours of watch time, Holmes delivered enough juice to keep
you watching.
With fight scenes more like Jackie Chan’s, lovely disguises by Holmes,
and the fun of seeing the dynamic duo battle together in a sheer masculine type
of male bonding, Watson plays the joker in every scene, introducing jokes and
fun as the plot untangles.
Holmes’ brother Mycroft was also introduced. As in the books, Sherlock
Holmes’ brother was more in touch with his power of observation than Sherlock
himself. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made Holmes’ brother smarter and better than
Holmes in his books, the only difference being he had more political ambition
than Holmes and less interest in being a detective.
Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) is up against a criminal mastermind,
Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), who is Holmes' intellectual equal. The story
starts off with the death of the Crown Prince of Austria. Holmes deduces that
the prince has been the victim of Professor Moriarty.
Holmes goes after Moriarty but always seems to be one step behind. The
two masterminds start a game of who will succeed, a game in which Moriarty’s
lack of conscience leads to chaos and death.
The movie did have an initial face-off between the two major players,
Holmes and Moriarty — a face-off that was less exciting than I hoped.
No need to say anything about the acting, as it was the main steed in
the movie. It rode hard and strong till it crossed the finish line in front.
The acting was something extraordinary, with good delivery of lines, wonderful
facial expressions, and grand gestures, making the actors more like the
characters they represent rather than being distant from the movie. What I'm
saying in few words is the actors were the bomb.
The scenery was well crafted to fit and suit the screenplay, which was a
grand gesture of mastery. Directing must have been made easy for Guy Ritchie
(who directed the first Sherlock Holmes), as the screenplay to me did
the main task. The script and dialogue won’t bore you, that’s for sure, and the
cat-and-mouse game between Holmes and Moriarty was good to watch.
The effects were great, and the tragedy was endless as the collateral
damage grew intensively in this movie. There was a scene that felt like a war
was going on.
The negative things about the movie have to be the way Ritchie made
Holmes look like a clumsy mercenary, overusing the slow-motion theme and
putting too much emphasis on guns. The addition of all these, made some scenes
looked too off when it comes to the character Sherlock Holmes. Holmes in the
books and the idea we have of him is one of class, this version is very gritty,
which I did not like.
At the end of this movie, all I have to say to the producers is, "a
little of all this in the next Sherlock Holmes, please."
If, like me, you delayed seeing this masterpiece, I advise you do so now before it gets away from the cinema — if it hasn’t already.
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