Belated A Game Of Shadows review

[ishtar79]

So I’m on day three of my umpteenth “quitting smoking” attempt, which has left me feeling drained and crappy, with a near-constant pounding headache and a general desire to stab things. So bear in mind that my thoughts on Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game Of Shadows might be slightly coloured by the fact, made worse by the fact that in the age of “no one smokes in films except villains” nonsense, I had to pick one of the few films where everybody smokes like a motherfucker lucky bastards

-Irene deserved better than this, damn it! I saw the poisoning coming a mile away, yet still clung to the hope she might still be alive until the end (well, at least until I realized this movie would include the famous Holmes “death”, as I knew that two resurrections in one film might be pushing it).

-RDJ continues to be absolutely delightful, fun, captivating…and not particularly Holmes-like in the role. It’s interesting to me to compare my feelings on those films vs BBC’s Sherlock. When I look at RDJ’s Homes I see, well, RDJ (and sometimes a weird AU, still-on-the-sauceTony Stark), and yet I still root for the character and am emotionally invested in his story. Cumberpatch’s Holmes, on the other hand, is convincing as a genius/feels quite authentic…and leaves me absolutely cold, and unable to summon a single care about what happens to him. I guess the point of this paragraph is that when it comes to Holmes, Jeremy Brett is still where it’s at for me (on the other hand, Law’s Watson is perfect).

-Predictably, the fanservice was off the charts, but it really wasn’t enough to cover up the lack of…well, anything else this movie had going for it. I rolled my eyes at the improbable m/m dancing scene (and people thought the Jack/Jack dance in Torchwood was unrealistic), though the scene where Watson and Sherlock in drag had sex were wrestling was LOLtastic.

-I think losing the familiar London setting and cast of characters was to the film’s disadvantage. My favourite bits were the ones in the Baker Street house, with long-suffering Ms Hudson in the background. Yes, it’s formulaic, but it’s a formula that’s been very successful for around 130 years, so one shouldn’t mess with it unless they’re sure the story they’ll tell instead is exciting/interesting/original. This wasn’t it.

-On paper, Simza is the type of character I’d be all over, and yet…meh. I don’t know whether it’s because of the actress, or because the whole movie was kind of “meh” for me, but she was an at best barely serviceable replacement for Irene.

-Mary, on the other hand, is made of pure win. Pity she was so underused here, though she had some great little moments (my personal favorite was definitely the look she exchanged with Holmes after seeing the state of Watson at the wedding).

-I can’t believe I went through the movie without realizing Moriarty was Lane from Mad Men. Maybe that’s what kept me from finding the character particularly menacing (though his plan to cause a World War was slightly more effective than the convoluted nonsensical villain plan of the first movie).

-Biggest waste of Stephen Fry’s talents since his Bones appearance. Also, while I love him, I love him even more with his clothes on (and poor Mary would agree. What was the point of the scene? Why is Mycroft randomly nudist?).

-God, Ritchie is kind of a terrible director, isn’t he? I wasn’t particularly enamoured of the slo-mo effect in the first movie either, but it reached new levels of ridiculousness here. Any gimmick works best when used very sparingly and thoughtfully-in other words, the complete opposite of what Ritchie did here. Unless what he was going for in the action scenes was “give the audience a headache/trigger epileptic fits while simultaneously boring them out of their minds”, in which case, thumps up!

Comments

[cleverthylacine]

I basically think of these movies as "Tony Stark Goes Steampunk" because if I didn't the part of me that actually likes the Sherlock Holmes stories would flip the fuck out. That is how I best enjoy them.

[ishtar79]

I can see how that would be a useful mindset to have for this film (personally I can't do that, hence the frustration with the flaws).

[blnchflr]

Good luck with quitting smoking!

Irene deserved better than this, damn it!
Absolutely - it's obvious that she didn't die anymore than that they can easily bring her back if they please, but I think both the character and actress deserved better.

I watched it very much expecting it to be entertaining at best, not actually a good movie. With those expectations, I was thoroughly entertained, so although I'm sure I could agree with more of your criticisms, I was just happy to be entertained by it, not hate it :o)

For one thing, I wallowed in the slow-mo - it completely worked for me, at least on first see-through.

Mary was awesome.

I don't mind seeing Stephen Fry naked at all, but it was random, and I think he didn't get to shine as much as he is capable of. Wonder why that is. Maybe you just can't have both RDJ and SF in the same movie??

[ishtar79]

Oh, it's probably not clear from all the bitching in my review, but I was actually entertained. I definitely didn't regret going, at least.

Mary was awesome but underused, and I agree they could have done so much more with Fry's character. I'm sure there's a hilarious movie about the adventures of Mary and Mycroft begging to be made.

[blnchflr]

I'd pay money to see that!!

[ninamalfoy]

Not commenting on the movie, as I haven't seen it (and probably will only watch it on DVD or something like that), but omg, what an ordeal - quitting smoking and then watching this!?! You brave, brave soul. *pets you*

[ishtar79]

Aw, thank you. I would say something like "it's not that hard", but really, it IS! :P

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

I'm with you - I feel so out of step on this one, but I didn't really care for this movie. Loved the first one; felt the second one jettisoned everything that made the first one fun. Why was Mycroft randomly nudist? What was the point? Exactly. The same could be said of most of the movie's jokes.

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how fandom in general reacted to this-I did a date search for the release date on my flist, and the general reaction seemed...indifference. I definitely think there were more posts for the first movie.

The nudity was so random! And stupid.

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

Most of what I've seen has been pure love and squee at the slashiness. And for me, it's like there's a difference between making jokes about how gay they are, and actually building the relationship. I'd much rather see the latter, and that's not what this movie gave me.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

well I was blaming the script more than the director... it definitely wasn't the actors' fault! I didn't hate the movie, but I wouldn't ever want to sit through it again.... I did love Mary, it would have been nice if she'd been more central to the plot.

I don't feel the need to compare RDJ w/Cumberbatch... because I do seriously love 'Sherlock' (I love the current date updating)

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

The script had issues, but I'm not a fan of Ritchie's direction either.

I'm not too enamoured of Sherlock. It's definitely slick, well-done and essentially watchable, but there's still for me something inherently unlikeable about the characters and the tone of the show.