Not Your Great-Grandma's Super Sleuth
If only he would have stopped then.
Ritchie's herky-jerky editing, which seemed so exciting in 1998, is now simply irritating. It's nauseating and gimmicky, but the biggest problem is that you can't ever tell what is going on. It's okay that Ritchie's Holmes is an action hero instead of a cerebral detective (I guess), but in a movie with a lot of fighting, it's kind of essential to be able to see what's happening during the exciting parts: who is fighting whom, which person is being maimed as opposed to murdered, etc. But you can't. Ritchie has constructed a movie with scene after scene of fast-motion arms flailing interspersed with slow-motion bullets.
It's not that it's ugly, it's that it's impossible to get wrapped up in a fight if you can't tell who is fighting.
I suspect that this is Ritchie's way of getting around choreographing realistic combat scenes, like they how they do on basic cable.
Having been raised on the BBC's Sherlock Holmes (played to absolute perfection by Jeremy Brett), I don't really buy Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law as the Aspergian sleuth and his loyal companion, but I'm willing to set that aside. They are, after all, sexy and charming, and I never mind a chance to objectify them. It's a shame that the writers didn't capitalize more on their sex appeal and explore the latent-yet-obvious homoerotic possibilities between the longtime companions. Holmes and Watson have most often been portrayed on screen by ugly men, and who wants to see ugly people get it on? Downey and Law are not ugly, and plenty of people would love to see them get it on. I'm not talking anything hardcore -- a two-second kiss and the occasional holding of hands would do just fine.
That said, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is not without some good points (the title is not among them). The movie features outstanding actors and witty performances -- not just our handsome heroes, but also Noomi Rapace (the original, Swedish girl with the dragon tattoo) as a fortune teller, Jared Harris (the Price in Sterling Cooper Draper Price) as the sociopath Moriarty and Stephen Fry, the true stand-out, as Holmes' smarter brother Mycroft. Fry's naked ass also makes a memorable cameo.
Also, the dialogue is humorous, clever and fast-paced. This is also a bit of a problem, because the best part of an action movie should never be the writing.
The plot seems to center mostly around anachronistic technology: Though the action is set in 1891, there are some surprisingly advanced weapons, a man with a face transplant and a functional automobile casually driven though the streets of London. There's also international intrigue and some innovative use of urban camouflage.
You could certain do worse than Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (The Devil Inside, for example), but it could have done so much better -- had it not been for that dastardly Ritchie.
