Sherlock Holmes, a Game of Shadows - Movie Review

I just watched Sherlock Holmes, a game of Shadows. It was running in the multiplex at my office campus. Before I go on to tell you how the movie was, I’m going to tell you what led me to go watch the movie.
First up, I’m a big Sherlock Holmes fan. I just love the way his mind works. Would’ve been great to know a real person like him.
I was sitting at home, half sleepy and half wondering what to do next that will not bore me. I had already watched The Hound of Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes TV Series, BBC) earlier today. I actually fancy a more modern day Sherlock rather than a Sherlock from the late 18th Century. But, nonetheless I realized that the DVD was not due until April, so I mustn’t curse myself in the future for not watching it, so I went ahead and made a decision to just go out there and watch it.

I usually have a habit of tweeting and posting on my fb wall, about any movie I was about to watch. Hoping for a last minute save from some good soul. I’m not a movie buff. I find it difficult to sit for about 3hrs and see what the Director has to show me. But, nonetheless, once I’m hooked onto it. I will watch it till the end.

So, I got balcony seat, a nice place to watch the movie from. The show was at 8:30pm, and I was there about 15mins earlier. At about 8:20, they started screening a few Trailers.

  1. GhostRider - Spirit of Vengeance
  2. The Dark Knight rises
  3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

The movie started off next, amidst a lot of whistling, which is something I still don’t understand or find the need for. Like its prequel, this edition too was based in the late 1800’s. If I’m not mistaken, 1891. The entire color tone and every thing else was set to mimic England from the 1800’s. A really nice job I must say. The visuals were slick and really a sight to the eye.

The plot opens up with James Watson typing down the entire tale, and is mostly narrated by him. There are a lot of bombings around England and people assume its the work of other nation’s planning on waging war against England. But, Sherlock Holmes knows better. he suspects the hand of his arch-nemesis Professor James Moriarty.

The tale is wound around a gypsy girl they meet, who’s brother Rene, works for Moriarty. I’m not going to throw too much light on the story. I’d rather you watch it than me spoil it for you. I’m not a good story teller! Well, I’m here to only give my critical opinion. It wasn’t as nail biting as its prequel. But, its worth the watch all the same,. imdb has rated it a 7.9/10, which is pretty high.

But, I guess the reason I wasn’t all that pleased with it was perhaps because I’ve been off late been fascinated with the UK TV Series. Its situated in modern times and has a lot more suspense to it.

My rating would be about 6/10. Neither was it bad, neither did it impress me much. It did make me laugh and did want me to watch it. I must attribute a lot of that to Robert Downy Jr., who is a fine actor and seems to carry his touch from Iron Man. He has really portrayed his role well. They introduced Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s brother for the first time. Watson’s role played by Jude Law has been enacted well too. Rachel McAdams, portrays her role really well too. It was sad to see Irene Adler killed off though. She was like the perfect match for Holmes. Mary Watson played by Kelly Reilly, shared more screen space compared to the previous Sherlock Holmes.

The climax was a bit predictable, they couldn’t kill off Mr. Holmes. So that clearly means we can expect more Holmes, hopefully from Robert Downy Jr. again.