Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Crunched for time this week, I was not able to find a good time to watch a movie, let alone get one. I did, however, have a copy of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows from Netflix that I had neglected to ever watch, and it would be good enough for me. I had been afraid to watch the movie for some time due to the poor reviews I had heard from people around me. Obviously, however, I did still have some hope that Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law could prevail again as great actors in an equally great film, and I can honestly say I am glad I have seen this movie. Not only is the movie engaging through a balance of action, comedy, romance, you name it, but it also incorporates two themes rather brilliantly throughout the course of the film.

The first theme Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows incorporates is a blatant Good vs. Evil. The mystery at hand shows the two sides conflicting from the very beginning, with evil being portrayed by chaos and destruction, respectively alongside darkness and death, and good by the classic team of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Their fight to save lives where no one else can has you cheering on the classic pair throughout the film. It is quite intriguing to see what extent the good are willing to go to in order to stop the evil, and in the end, [SPOILER ALERT] good prevails at a close call, and the mystery tied together by thousands of seemingly untraceable connections is shattered at the hands of Holmes and Watson.

Another, deeper, theme is Man versus Himself. It is interesting to see Sherlock Holmes at odds with himself while fighting a larger war. It all starts with him being reluctant to admit the loss he feels no longer have Dr. Watson in his life, and then feeling as though he is being stolen away again by marriage just as the situation were about to be mended. He struggles with this idea and does not know how to cope with this emotional restraint that bogs him down throughout the movie. He disrupts the Watson’s honeymoon for their own good, as well as secretly his own. A less harmless incident is when his mental stress forms a miscalculation, and he disrupts an opera while letting the true target get hit. His mistake cost lives, and would cost him his own as well as those of his friends if he could not defeat his inner turmoil before finally taking down the worthy opponent professor. At the end of the movie, [SPOILER ALERT] with a glance to Watson showing him it is the end of his road, Sherlock Holmes peacefully greets what should be certain death after falling and saving the lives of everyone he loved by sacrificing his own life and taking the professor down with him. Instead, however, this journey down a waterfall to no end has him arising out of the water, metaphorically baptized into a new man, and allows the Watsons to believe him dead to give each other the space they needed for the time being. It is a story of renewal and redemption.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows takes an unorthodox approach to special effects, and Hans Zimmer composes quite a unique score. At times, the unique features of the film that set it aside from any ordinary film could seem quite odd, while other times the slow motion or strange camera angles and lighting could give direct insight into the characters thought and guide the mood of the story. It was quite a neat movie, and was a successful sequel Sherlock Holmes. It is for you to judge if it was as good or not, but I would at least give it 3.75 clues/5.