DIRECTOR: Guy Ritchie
STUDIO: Warner Bros. Pictures
STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris
RATING: PG-13
GENRE: Action, Adventure, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
GRADE: C+
I was actually really looking forward to this film. I really loved the first one, and thought that they could make the second one at least a good companion piece to it. However, they took the new and very classy parts of the first one, and stretched them far too thin.
For example, in the 2009 original film, Sherlock Holmes had a scene where - in his mind - he figured out a way to fight a man, and win, but we see it in slow motion. Then, the fight occurs in real time, and it's a very ingenious way of the audience to see how his mind works. In this film, it's about every other scene, and it changes from the slow-motion to real-time. I understand the audience LOVED the scene from the first one, so they wanted to enhance it, but it was a bit overdone.
Also, a feature I couldn't get enough of from the first film is how Holmes would figure every thing out, using small clues and surprise the audience with his findings. However, he rarely does this in this film. I know that I shouldn't compare too much, but with such high expectations from the first one, it's hard not to.
The acting in this film was amazing! Robert Downey Jr. has, and probably will be, one of my favorite actors, and Jude Law was great on-screen with him. The only true techincal issues were the editing, probably from the director. But, that just goes back to the "figure things out in slow motion" part I mentioned above.
Overall, it's a let down compared to the first. If you really loved the first movie, I wouldn't exactly suggest it, but if you've never seen it, then you might enjoy it. A "C+" is all I can really give it, though.
