20.05.12

&#x93;Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows&#x94; pits the world&#x92;s greatest detective against &#x93;the Napoleon of crime&#x94; in a matchup that is a mild improvement on 2009&#x92;s respectable &#x93;Sherlock Holmes.&#x94;</p><p>Robert Downey Jr. once again transforms the stuffy scholar into a martial arts guru with observational powers that Rain Man would covet. Hooked on &#x93;a diet of coffee, tobacco and cocoa leaves&#x94; &#x97; and sipping formaldehyde on occasion &#x97; his Holmes doesn&#x92;t have any problem filling up the screen with charisma and quirks. </p><p>Downey is aided by a worthier, Bondian villain, the diabolical genius Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris, &#x93;Mad Men&#x94;). Whether the two are playing chess without a board or exchanging punches in which they project the outcome in their minds, the movie always gets more interesting when they share the screen.</p><p>This time Holmes and a reluctant Dr. Watson (Jude Law) &#x97; who is preoccupied with his imminent wedding &#x97; trace how a rash of anarchist bombings is related to a plot involving the war-poised European powers of 1891. </p><p>Also injected into the scenario is Madam Simza (Noomi Rapace of the Swedish &#x93;The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo&#x94;). She&#x92;s a Gypsy fortune-teller (is there any other kind in movies?) whose missing brother is somehow connected to the nefarious deeds. Plus, she&#x92;s pretty good with a knife. </p><p>The seemingly convoluted story line does manage to eventually bind together, with a wry commentary on the military-industrial complex to boot.</p><p>The knock on the previous &#x93;Holmes&#x94; adaptation was that it owed more to filmmaker Guy Ritchie (&#x93;RocknRolla&#x94;) than to creator Arthur Conan Doyle. </p><p>That&#x92;s not an unfair assessment of this installment, either. But &#x93;Game of Shadows&#x94; benefits from a vivid script (by husband and wife team Michele and Kieran Mulroney) filled with engaging details. Holmes&#x92; deductions are often seen in sped-up flashback, where his attention to minutiae is fascinating. (How a stratagem hinges on a pot of dead flowers is ingenious.) This leads to a remarkably clever and satisfying finale.</p><p>But Ritchie can&#x92;t help get in the way of his own movie by persistently introducing distracting visual and editing choices. </p><p>The overall look is a dreary color palette of sepia steampunk. Yet it&#x92;s the furious action scenes that the British filmmaker really fumbles. For every decent skirmish (one set aboard a train is a doozy) there are two that fall apart because of hyper frame rates and/or alternating slow and fast motion. These headache-inducers clutter an already busy movie.</p><p><hr></p><p><span class="factbox_head">WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING</p><p></span>&bull; <span class="bold">Arizona Republic:</span> &#x93;Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law &#x85; retain the winning chemistry from the first, superior film, and that&#x92;s enough to make you soldier on through the overly stylized action.&#x94;</p><p>&bull; <span class="bold">Fort Worth Star-Telegram:</span> &#x93;For their part, (Guy) Ritchie and a new set of screenwriters &#x85; keep the plot (relatively) coherent and the action lively and lucid. &#x91;A Game of Shadows&#x92; aims low and hits the bull&#x92;s-eye.&#x94;</p><p>&bull; <span class="bold">Orlando Sentinel:</span> &#x93;If only the recycled Bond-film gadgets and Bond-film plot line didn&#x92;t weigh &#x91;Game of Shadows&#x92; down. If only they&#x92;d spent the cash on a bad guy with stature, instead of taking that phrase &#x91;the banality of evil&#x92; so literally.

Source: Kansas City Star