Review of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) by Jaf48 — 18 Dec 2011

A truly poor sequel. Ritchie takes the device of Holmes being able to triumph physically through rapid intellectual analysis pod the situation, which worked in the first installment, and beats it to death here.

The charm of Conan Doyle's books is that the reclusive cerebral Holmes can observe minute details which illuminate the truth of crime scenes, interrogations, and the rest of criminal investigation. In order to pander to a broad (and presumably dull-witted) audience, Ritchie has turned Downey's performance into that of a whirling martial arts sensei.

Moriarty is no hatcher of labyrinthine schemes here but merely a run of the mill (by today's standards) defense contractor. The ham-handed finale was the final insult and, for me, His Last Bow.