Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Review

I am going to warn you now.

IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED FOR A MAJOR PLOTPOINT IN THIS FILM, PLEASE SCROLL PAST. YOU HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY WARNED, CHAPS.

So. 

The first Sherlock Holmes film is tied in first place with Snatch as my all time favorite Guy Ritchie movie. God, I can't count how many times I've seen Sherlock Holmes. Dozens. It's just a fantastic film that has no flaws, as far as I can tell, but then again, this is coming strictly from a movie fan and not a novelist. I have not had the pleasure of reading the Holmes novels yet but you can bet your bottom dollar that they are on my reading list. Having said that, you can tell by my words here and the fact that I went to the midnight premiere of the movie that I was seriously anticipating this film.

Let me clear the air: Sherlock Holmes II is a smashing success. It keeps all the wit, charm, tone, and amazing cinematography from the first movie and continues the delicious trends of everything I enjoyed about the first film.

However.

There is one big fat glaring reason why I physically cannot like it as much as the first film. I mean, there are other smaller issues that bug me, but this one is so gigantic that I am almost sorry for admitting it.

But let me explain myself before I drop the bomb: earlier this year, I made a Youtube video of my Top 26 Favorite Female Characters. These are women who have made their mark as the best representatives of excellent writing for the fairer sex, from movies to cartoons to live action TV shows.

Irene Adler was Number 21 on that list. 

And in Sherlock Holmes II, she dies within the first ten minutes.

I cannot cope. I could not cope in the theater and I cannot do it now. 

Look, I'm an aspiring novelist. I know that often writers will make an incredibly awesome character and then kill them later on for emotional impact and to drive the plot and such. I know that. Hell, my writing sensei encouraged me to do that in one of my novels. But killing Irene Adler, who was a goddamn force to be reckoned with in the first movie as well as just a damn great character in general, is unforgivable and even though A Game of Shadow is still a fantastic, well-made, enjoyable film, I absolutely cannot enjoy it as much as the first one because they killed her. 

Perhaps if her death served the purpose of deeply motivating Holmes to defeat Moriarty, then I would have swallowed it a little better, but that's what the worst part is. 

Holmes barely acknowledges her death.

Now, don't get me wrong, he does react to it in typical Holmes fashion of trying really hard to bottle up his emotions in front of the bad guy, but when the time finally does come for him to face her death, all he does is smell her perfume on her handkerchief and toss it into the ocean. The end. She is never referenced again in the film. No revenge speech. No flashbacks. Nothing.

That is fucking unacceptable.

She deserves better. I cannot condone, from a writer's standpoint, killing a major character within the first ten minutes of the sequel. It trivializes one of the best silver screen female characters that I've seen in quite some time to nothing more than collateral damage. It's like when Count Dooku died in the first ten minutes of Episode III. Most people thought it was a fake out because they spent so much time building him up in the other two films and then just killed him in the third one like he wasn't anything. Same with Irene. I mean, do you remember how amazing she was in the first movie? She kicked ass, she played Holmes for a fool, she flirted, she encouraged/motivated/drove the plot all while still being just as beautiful and deadly as a Siberian tiger. You take all of that amazingness and just drop it for the sake of dropping it? No. Absolutely not. 

So if that makes me a biased audience member, so be it. 

Now, if you were a normal viewer and not in love with Irene Adler, then you'll probably like this movie just as much as you did the first one. It has all the same elements of awesomeness. The humor, as always, is spot on. Holmes and Watson pick up right where they left off--the adorable bickering brotherhood (or marriage, if you slash them like 90% of the fangirls do) that is borderline murderous at times. The soundtrack, in typical Guy Ritchie style, is marvelous. The action sequences are sublime. The casting is magnificent. Moriarty is so devious that you seriously want to stick your hands in the screen and choke him the fuck out by the end of the film. What a bastard, seriously. Stephen Fry, though under-used, in my opinion, was excellent and very welcome to the cast. The Gypsy Chick, however, was sort of just...there. She did some things but not really enough to be considered all that important. That sounds a bit mean, but she's just okay, as is the actress playing her. 

If I had any other criticism, it would be that this film didn't have the same mystery element as the first one. I loved how everything unfolded in the first movie and that we were not chasing Lord Blackwood but rather unraveling his scheme in order to find him. In Holmes II, we are chasing a character so we can stop a war and Moriatry at the same time. I just think that I missed the feeling of putting the clues together and seeing the big picture instead of a chase film, exciting and gratifying though it may be. But again, that's a personal preference.

I can without a doubt recommend this film to Holmes fans, but for me, it comes with an asterisk. Take that as you will, chaps. 

And yes, I wrote this entire review with RDJ's British accent dictating it in my head. It takes a while for that to wear off after seeing the movie.

The trailer for Sherlock Holmes II: A Game of Shadows. Prepare your panties for wetness.

This scene never stops being amazing. A perfect example of how music, great writing, and a well choreographed action sequence can come together and make a captivating moment. Hans Zimmer and Guy Ritchie need to stay together forever.