Film Review | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Purists be damned. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (sequel to the 2009 smash-hit update of the legendary Victorian sleuth) is the most fun film at the cinema right now.

Regardless of your age or gender, this rapidly-rolling tale of international cross-political intrigue, held together by a rapidly-expanding spot of bromance from our two leads - Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return as the eponymous detective and his unwitting sidekick and faithful erstwhile biographer, Dr John Watson - makes for a refreshing, holiday-friendly blockbuster that is part Indiana Jones, part James Bond, part panto and part burlesque.

Hyper-kinetic director Guy Ritchie returns to helm this labyrinthine instalment in what has just been confirmed to eventually become (at least) a trilogy and which, taking a few selected pages from the Arthur Conan Doyle source material, introduces Sherlock Holmes's legendary arch-rival, the 'Napoleon of Crime' Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris).

The two share a mutual respect for each other as analytical minds, but when Holmes discovers Moriarty's plans to pit Europe at war with itself so that he may then play profiteer, he begins to take his pursuit of the devious professor a bit more seriously. In retaliation, Moriarty targets the newly-married Watson and his bride Mary (Kelly Reilly), which catapults Watson out of his honeymoon and back as Holmes's partner-in-justice.  

Embroiled in an international conspiracy, the duo enlist in the help of a gypsy fortune teller Sim (Noomi Rapace), who is on a quest to find a lost brother who may or may not be directly involved in Moriarty's devious, large-scale plan of Europe-wide destruction.

If you didn't like the 2009 original, chances are you aren't going to be won over by this take. Everything that made the first film distinct from previous versions of Sherlock Holmes - namely, hyper-stylised slo-mo fight scenes, a 'rock star' approach to Holmes himself and an emphasis on action set-pieces over cleverly plotted mysteries - is cranked up a couple of notches higher.

But that fact alone doesn't make it a poorer film. The pleasure of Ritchie's Holmes lies in the fact that, in wresting what is essentially a Victorian superhero away from the cosy aesthetic we have grown accustomed to over the years, he has crafted a nostalgic adventure yarn of a different kind.

The previous instalment was largely confined to London, but this time, our heroes are made to trot across 19th century France and Switzerland. The effect is that of high-flying boy's own adventures... even, perhaps, Connery-era James Bond (a far cry from the far more sombre Daniel Craig films) - which creates an air of genuine fun that is not completely destroyed by Hollywood cynicism.

Of course it's all shallow, and of course it's all about as subtle as a shot from a surprise catapult Watson finds towards the end of the film. The 'bromance' between the two, an alluring bit of subconscious (or is it?) subtext in the source material, is pushed to the forefront and poked fun of incessantly - about the only bit of real drama emanates from Holmes's pain at the prospect of losing a best friend and colleague to mundane family life.

Rapace is a refreshing addition to the team. She replaces Rachel MacAdams's Irene Adler for a large part of the film - a wise choice, as the previous Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, in her first English-language role, adds genuine exoticism to a story that appears to scream out for it (her accent is hard to place, but it isn't grating).

Harris, something of a British Steve Buscemi - he is often cast in deliberately cringe-inducing, weird roles - ticks all the right boxes as a deviously erudite villain, who's convincing both as a Cambridge don and scheming arms dealer to-be. However I couldn't help but feel that Mark Strong made for a more impressive baddie in the original - which isn't exactly ideal as it's Moriarty we're supposed to remember.