“I’m on my honeymoon!!!!”
I’m not
going to repeat the things I said about Guy Ritchie’s distinctive directorial style in my blog review for this film’s
prequel. Nor am I going to point out that this is pretty much an action film
version of Sherlock Holmes (though this film emphasises this less), or that Robert Downey Jr is ridiculously good
here and undoubtedly the greatest leading man working in Hollywood today. Yes,
he’s even a bit better than Johnny Depp.
He’s that good.
This film is
far more respectful of the source material than its predecessor. Although not
exactly a version of The Final Problem,
it borrows from it heavily, including the apparent deaths of Holmes and
Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls,
although of course we’re not expected to believe that Holmes actually died. Are
you listening, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss? If that wasn’t enough, Stephen Fry gives us a version of
Mycroft which is both extremely entertaining and extremely faithful to the
source material.
Moriarty’s dastardly
scheme is delightfully nefarious, if a little dependent on the writers’ knowledge
that the First World War would break out twenty three years after the end of
the film. Moriarty’s plans to make a gun running fortune from a massive war
gives us a good excuse for lots of big budget hijinks as Holmes and Watson
speed through France, Germany and, of course, Switzerland.
The bromance
between Holmes and Watson is handled rather hilariously, with best man Holmes
not being best pleased about Watson’s upcoming marriage. This nice little
character point gives Downey a chance to show what a great actor he is, and
gives Jude Law a chance to show what,
in my opinion, a great actor he isn’t. Jared Harris is a surprisingly middling Moriarty, and one surprisingly faithful
to what little references there were to the character in the regional stories.
In fact, this faithfulness is taken a little too far: is there really any need
to include Colonel Sebastian Moran? Incidentally, doesn’t Moran sound a bit
common for a colonel in the Victorian army?
Still, this
is enormous fun to watch, if slightly long, and I have to admit it was
excellent. In fact, I would admit this film to that elite club of sequels that
are better than their originals.
I have also enjoyed both the RDJ films a lot, but I have to admit, looking back at both a decade later, they do have their weeks points. Rachel McAdams I felt was underused in both films, particularly as she is “killed off” with little to no care in the start of the sequel. To be fair, the filmmakers definitely appear to have left it ambiguous, given we don’t see a body, but will the third film go that route? Who knows? And I don’t have in it my to give my hopes up only for the third film to disappoint me.
ReplyDeleteAnd the gap between the second film is... quite large. I hope there's no riffing on The Lion's Mane or His Last Bow or the like!
ReplyDelete14 years later, all the Sherlock Holmes 3 talk has got too exhausting to follow anymore. Every time, they gave a production/release date, the prediction would always be wrong.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to see Young Sherlock on AMAZON PRIME in 2026? It star Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Sherlock and Dónal Finn as Moriarty. It is an adaptation of Andrew Lane's Young Sherlock Holmes book series. I hasten to add it is unrelated to the two RDJ films. Just that it make an interesting comparison to the films as Guy Ritchie is helming the series.
ReplyDeleteI very probably will! Thanks for making me aware of it.
ReplyDeleteGiving it a watch currently; I think it is so-so. Finn is a highlight as young James.
DeleteOne thing that interested me at the time of the releases about these two films were the deleted scenes that can only be found in the trailers. The most sought out scene is from the first film, in which Adler tries to stab Holmes with a haircomb and kicks him in the testicles; originally, the bedroom scene was longer, but Ritchie decided that for the sake of time (and he thought Holmes fans might consider it non-canon), he shoot a shorter version instead. Originally, a Game of Shadows had a different opening ; in which Holmes and Lestrade investiage the crown prince of Austria's death and Holmes decudes it could not have been suicide but Moriarty and Moran's work. The plot point about the prince can still be found in some press releases and info packs about the film, and the trailer has Holmes investigating the dead prince (a man with a moustache in a chair). There is even a kiss between Holmes and Simza in the trailer that does not happen in the film; honestly, it make no sense as Holmes was mourning for Adler!
ReplyDeleteI remember wishing those scenes had been kept as extras.
Some people think the scene with Mycroft's casual nudity in front of Mary might be deleted from future releases of the film in the light of the #MeToo movement, in the vein of how Pixar deleted a certain fake "blooper" scene from Toy Story 2.
ReplyDeleteMy only gripes I have with the sequel is how Irene Adler is killed off in the the first twenty minutes. For a character that is supposed to be as smart and quick-witted as Holmes, she didn't get much of a chance to show it. And for what purpose? I suppose it was to show off how dangerous Moriarty was, and I loved Jared Harris as the Napoleon of Crime, but it felt like a waste of McAdams. I kept expecting her death was faked and she would turn up alive. Her supposed death wasn't shown onscreen outside of a story told by Moriarty, so it seemed deliberately set up for a last-minute reveal... which never happened. It'd be weird to shelve her for an entire movie just to bring her back later, but I've seen weirder.
ReplyDeleteSim, the "gypsy" fortune-teller feels like a not-as-cool replacement character for Adler, that they felt they needed a female in the cast and so they came up with her. She doesn't have the character that Adler did.
Here's the one plot point I totally don't understand. Rene-disguised-as-ambassador takes his shot, and rants about how "Germany will pay". Now, he /misses/, but he still takes his shot. And is killed before he can confess to the rest of the plot. Why would the World War /not happen anyways/! It's not like it's the death of the Archduke that would neccesitate such a thing; the simple act of an attempted assassination should be more than enough. the now-dead asassin won't, say, be able to spill the beans about who hired him. Even the best investigators who aren't Holmes will just find a set of dead ends with murdered anarchists and scientists dead of natural causes. Plus, Moriarty and Holmes going off the waterfall adds credibility to Mycroft and Watson's story. I would guess that the poison dart and the fact that he's not the actual ambassador (they might even find the actual ambassador unconscious or dead) will put enough ambiguity in things that Mycroft can use his influence to calm things a bit.