Nobody's Holmes

When I did my 2011 movie preview, two of the films that I ranked high on the list were The Hangover Part II and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Both merited their spot because of how much I enjoyed each of their original films. However, in my preview of both of these sequels, I questioned how good they could be given that each of them were coming out only two years after their predecessor. Earlier this year my suspicions were proven correct as most people agreed that the second Hangover was nothing but a pale imitation of the first. Sadly, the same turns out to be true for Sherlock Holmes

2009's Sherlock Holmes was one of the most pleasant surprises I had had at the movies in recent years. What could have been awful turned out to be an extremely engaging and entertaining film. I loved the way director Guy Ritchie had woven the more violent aspects of the film into Holmes' cerebral nature. And of course, the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as the titular gumshoe and Jude Law as his faithful sidekick, Watson was inspired. They had even managed to nicely sow the seeds for this sequel with the introduction of Holmes' arch-rival, Professor Moriarty.

Fast-forward to this sequel and hardly any of what made the first film so appealing can be found. The biggest absence is a central mystery. Instead of having Sherlock track down the clues of Moriarty's latest elaborate crime, they turn the professor (played by Jared Harris) into a Bond-esque villain, who's out to start a world war. The elements of Moriarty's plan that are left to mystery are not very engaging, nor do they truly test Holmes' intelligence. Late in the film, the two rivals play a literal game of chess to represent the supposed metaphorical one that they've been playing the entire movie, but I think dodgeball would have been a more apt analogy. The film spends way too much time on gunfights and/or people trying to escape a hail of gunfire. While the action that was incorporated into the first film fit, here it feels excessive and unnecessary.

A lack of mystery is not the only thing missing from the film. This sequel was also in need of more snappy dialogue. While Downey and Law are still able to exchange a number of clever and witty barbs at each other, there is no one else here for them to play off of. A lot of the fun from the first film came from Holmes' interactions with both Inspector Lestrade and Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). The globe-spanning plot of this film forced Holmes out of London, thus Lestrade was limited to a mere cameo. Meanwhile Irene briefly shows up at the beginning of the film only to have her appearance be ended rather abruptly. Both of their presence were sorely missed throughout most of the film.

It doesn't help that the female substitute for McAdams' Adler is Noomi Rapace, a gypsy woman who has connections to Moriarty's plot. Rapace is a charisma vacuum in this film and weighs down every scene she's in with the film's leads. Why the writers felt the need to have her stay with the detectives throughout the movie is baffling to me. She added nothing to the audience's enjoyment of the film and she added nothing to help Holmes and Watson solve the case. I can only hope that if a third film is made (and it will be) that her character is nowhere to be seen in it.

Had this been a generic action movie set in this time period, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. The film keeps the story moving along and there's plenty in it to keep your attention. But because of the Sherlock Holmes name and the quality of the first film, there were certain expectations that I had for this sequel that simply were not met. This just reeked of a cash grab instead of taking the time to create a good story. Downey and Law's talent can only take things so far. And while they did their best to make this enjoyable, there were just too many other variables that weighed this film down. I can only hope that more time and effort goes into making the third film. I'm not ready to give up on this franchise, but this was one of the biggest disappointments I had this year at the movies, and sadly there were a lot of them this year. How they managed to botch this film so badly is a mystery that not even Holmes himself could solve. Grade: C+