Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

The laws of the modern blockbuster dictate that if you are to resurrect the character of Sherlock Holmes, you are going to make him an action star. That’s perfectly fine per se, but execution is key. If you can balance the fireworks with an intriguing mystery and a moderate level of intelligence, then you’ll have a pretty darn good piece of entertainment. If you just kind of focus heavily on making things look cool, coast on the likability of your two stars and never really invest yourself in a worthwhile story, then you’re far less likely to win me over. Unfortunately, this is precisely what has happened with Guy Ritchie’s two Sherlock Holmes films. This sequel, A Game of Shadows, is even less interested in exploring its characters or expanding its universe. Instead, Ritchie simply delivers another string of overdone yet incoherent action scenes strung together by scenes of comedic relief and a dumb-as-nails non-mystery.

This time Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes is on the trail of the villainous Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), perhaps the only man who can be described as Holmes’ intellectual equal. Moriarty plans to bring war to Europe through a series of bombings and assassinations, and in order to stop him Holmes must rudely interrupt the honeymoon of his sidekick John Watson (Jude Law) and begin the investigation/butt-kicking. Along the way they team up with a fortune teller named Sim (Noomi Rapace), whose brother may be involved in Moriarty’s plot. They spend the film travelling throughout Europe, including France, a German arms factory and finally a James Bond-like mountainside compound in The Alps.

Where Ritchie’s first Holmes film at least made some effort on introducing and developing the characters, A Game of Shadows begins and ends with our heroes in more or less the same emotional place. Worse yet, most attempts at introducing new characters fall completely flat. Moriarty is well-performed by Harris, but there’s not a whole lot to him besides the usual “ultimate nemesis” clichés and clunky chess metaphors. However, no one is wasted in this film more than Rapace, who is introduced mostly to keep a female around for the obvious “diversity” reasons. There’s probably an interesting character there, but the role she plays is never crucial enough to justify her continued existence from a plot standpoint. She’s just there to be there, and the rest of the film shares this frustrating disinterest in exploring anything past the surface.

What A Game of Shadows lacks in depth is more than made up for in sheer chaos, which Ritchie provides in heavy doses throughout. The same style of combat and action that we saw in the original returns here, and it’s just as frustrating as ever. There are frequent moments of random slow motion and strange stylistic touches, but absolutely none of them make the action more exciting. If anything, it just makes it choppier and hard to follow. There’s no flow to Ritchie’s action, and thus there is no ultimate impact. Things just happen, and whenever they do the audience isn’t impressed so much as the film seems to be impressed with itself. If you were to sit down with Ritchie, go through an action scene from A Game of Shadows and ask him why he made the stylistic decisions he did, he likely would answer with “just because.” The individual shots don’t connect, and I was left feeling confused rather than excited. With action, coherence is the most important thing. In that regard, this film completely and utterly fails.

That the performances in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows are so fun only makes the ultimate experience all the more frustrating. There’s a great blockbuster movie to be made with these characters, these actors, and even this environment. Ritchie hasn’t made it quite yet. He can be a good director if given source material that fits his sensibilities, but matching him with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation has always felt to me like Hollywood was trying to assemble a peanut butter and macaroni and cheese sandwich. It isn’t destined to add up to a quality whole. The chemistry between Downey Jr. and Law is pretty terrific, and most of the scenes that rely solely on their performances are terrifically funny and entertaining. I’m not asking that these films do away completely with the action; I just wish there was something of substance here to justify it. As it stands, the Sherlock Holmes films are just another underachieving blockbuster franchise that values commotion over quality.

Grade: C-