Review: 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'

A few years ago to less fervent connoisseurs of the stories written at the beginning of last century by Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle had made ​​clear that the main character of his crop creatively, Sherlock Holmes , was a keen intelligence detective did not resolve their cases to hit, but of reasoning, although well worth an endless series of disguises. In short, it was a sort of intellectual research that looked good on the page, but could hardly adapt to the demands of the great contemporary audiences, as evidenced by his retirement from the recent film projects. Of course, all that changed in 2009 with the release of the first Hollywood blockbuster on their investigations, in which significantly increased the weight of the action sequences themselves were somehow present in the original stories, but in this case served to give Holmes an aspect of modern adventurer went hand in hand with the implementation of a bohemian look ungainly. It was a risky decision that did not please the purists precisely, but he found not only a welcome reception at the box office but also in the appreciation of many critics, convinced by their great entertainment value obtained and the excellent chemistry between the two protagonists, Holmes and his assistant Watson, respectively interpreted as Robert Downey Jr. ("Iron Man," "Chaplin") and Jude Law ("The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Contagion"). The good fortune of that version has made ​​both the producer and studio executives British director Guy Ritchie, also in charge of ribbon-lead the first things to greater extremes in the sequel, which opens today in a country. By this we mean that the film will probably love who celebrated that first Holmes enters your fists much more than the books, while further frustrate those who felt that this reinterpretation was a betrayal of the spirit of Conan Doyle. The detective's new film is a true action hero, and now delivers even more pleasure to the fight, showing some skills in melee combat that would be the envy of Van Damme. Fortunately, these tendencies have not delegitimize its analytical capacity, because while it is pulled off the many enemies that threaten him with its unsuspected talent for martial arts, most of the positive results obtained are a consequence their painstaking mental deductions. What is clear is that Ritchie, who before this series was so intense work style as "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "RocknRolla," has given vent to his visual instincts wildest, to the extent that their fight scenes remind us in some way seen in the recent offers of "Mission: Impossible" (which is most striking when one considers that a quarter of the series starring Tom Cruise premieres on the same day, making in practice that the two films compete in areas such clear despite its temporary location distances). Here, the waste of choreography, slow motion shots and compositional devices can work both at the dazzling as a confusing, depending on the viewer. Fully involved in the way, Ritchie brings out its arsenal of visual tricks, his mind apparently placed in a juvenile audience certainly enjoy a proposal that, in the midst of his excesses, is done with such professionalism and such precision which can not fail to cause admiration in anyone who has grown up with the cinema of the past twenty years. Not everything in " A Game of Shadows "is dedicated to this kind of spectacular, because the story behind the story has a dynamic quite interesting and, of course, Downey Jr. and Law are still excellent. Besides being one of the most fun types and some notable actors possess charisma so intense that make the viewer with a smile forget some of the obvious absurdities present in a story that, through its proper development, often line in the unbelievable. In "Game of Shadows", Holmes is convinced that the supposed anarchist bombings plaguing Europe have to do with Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), a master of crime that takes refuge under its scientific appearance. In the midst of his wanderings, the famous detective is reunited with Watson, who is about to marry and, of course, ruin their honeymoon during a fascinating sequence developed on board a train. The reunited duo's adventures take them to Paris (delightfully set in the time), where they meet SiMz (Noomi Rapace), a gypsy fortune teller who has a mysterious relationship with the local anarchists and, therefore, will also become the game, and will do so sporadic Watson's new wife (Kelly Reilly), Holmes's brother (Stephen Fry) and other characters. In this set, the most missed is undoubtedly Rapace feeling aroused by his starring role in the original version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", but fulfilling a role quite fitting here, in fact, apart from Downey Jr. and Law, which stands out is Harris. This experienced English interpreter (he was in "Happiness" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") plays a villain as brilliantly clever as atypical, which not averse to direct fight, but it shows in all its splendor dementia while simultaneously exudes passion for the crime and the opera scene in a parallel assembly that combines a vibrant performance of "Don Giovanni" with a terrorist ostentatious that he has orchestrated. There would be a very boring no fun with this (and a little movie fan to not detect a tribute to "The Godfather").