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Rating:
Occasionally, it happens that I descend from my exile to my hometown where, even more occasionally, I find myself going to a cinema to watch a newly released film. Yesterday, precisely, the situation presented itself in the form of the new Guy Ritchie film, Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows. The second chapter of what we quite evidently suspect to be a trilogy inspired by the most famous detective in England. In this episode Mr. Holmes is engaged in saving not the British Empire but the entire world, or rather, he is engaged in thwarting, at the end of the 19th century, a world war. His opponent is Doctor Moriarty, a real malevolent mold of Holmes in genius and intelligence.
The differences with the first chapter of the saga are obviously not profound, indeed, A Game of Shadows is even richer in action, chases, and imaginative twists.
The duo of Robert Downey Jr. / Jude Law still works very well, and the dialogues are truly successful ("Watson, you must respect women!" "Said he who threw them from trains"), and it is embellished by Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother and an equally quirky character. Instead of the charming thief, this time we find a charming gypsy, while newlywed Watson is embarked on the new adventure during his honeymoon trip to Brighton. The characters work more than well, in short, and precisely on their skill, an attempt is made to hold up a film that has quite a few flaws.
It seems that the flights of fancy this time are excessive and the plot a bit too far-fetched. What was the strength of the first chapter now, with the element of surprise gone, becomes a limitation. We are in 1891, I repeat, and we find, in order: steam trains racing at 150 kilometers per hour, on said trains there are soldiers who, with a machine gun, manage to pierce six compartments, empty at that (and I understand that in conceiving a crime "the orchestration is meticulously designed" but...), cannons capable of breaching an Afghan bunker, and so on. And then, I'm afraid the film is slightly penalized by the choice of the villain. Lord Blackwood, the villain of the first episode, was a majestically sinister figure, who seemed to have made a pact with the forces of evil, supernatural forces. And the strength of that Sherlock was, in my opinion, precisely in revealing how Lord Blackwood was a normal person, relying on his intelligence rather than black magic. Professor Moriarty, however, is human, all too human, does not seem at all an invincible enemy, nor does he seem a true incarnation of Mephistophelian evil. For him, it suffices, having sensed the bellicose winds of the Belle Époque, to buy a German arms factory (where the aforementioned bunker-breaking cannons are produced) and trade with the various nations in conflict. Another objective, to accelerate a conflict that, as he himself states, is inevitable, thus giving us the clear idea that Holmes has been working for nothing. An idea reinforced by the fact that we ourselves know how things turned out.
In short, rather than Sherlock Holmes, we are faced with a James Bond in Victorian sauce.
Nonetheless, the film can be watched with pleasure, which doesn't mean the new Sherlock isn't entertaining. However, it is predictable, a film, as the saying goes, with lots of smoke and a bit too little substance.
5.5
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