Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Dec. 18th, 2011 12:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bennet_7Having just finished my first semester of my master's I thought to treat myself to a movie tonight. Thanks to the fact that earlier this week The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo had a London première where Rooney Mara wore one of her various seasonally inappropriate cut-out dresses, I thought that that film was out already. Not so. So I went to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows instead.
(Sidebar: I kind of want to see Mission: Impossible: Ghost: Protocol for Jeremy Renner being a badass in a suit? And also Simon Pegg being funny? And the movie as whole looks kind of fun? Even though it has Crazy Pants Cruise? HELP?!)
- Sadly, considering that this was supposed to be a treat, I didn't really enjoy this film. I thought the script was messy.
- And while I enjoyed Robert Downey Jr. in the first film with only a few reservations, in this one, coming after Benedict Cumberbatch's interpretation, he really felt unHolmesish. Something about his characterisation and/or performance is just a few degrees off. The acting is still good but I feel like Holmes needs to be more introverted and aloof, and less charming. Everything about the role needs more restraint.
- But I do really, really like Jude Law in this. His Watson is pretty great.
- The few scenes that Kelly Reilly got to show up as Mary were also good. The Watsons were really cute together before they got pushed apart.
- Can't believe they killed Irene Adler, although I suppose there is a slim chance she could come back. Her relationship with Holmes was even more awkward.
- Noomi Rapace didn't impress as Sim the gypsy, but I think that was more a fault of the writing. Like, I wouldn't actually know how to describe her character except as...good at running?
- I don't think that Stephen Fry and RDJ really worked as siblings and they didn't give Mycroft anything terribly interesting or badass to do which was disappointing.
- The film was, for the most part, really well shot.
- But yes, overall I am whelmed.
(Sidebar: I kind of want to see Mission: Impossible: Ghost: Protocol for Jeremy Renner being a badass in a suit? And also Simon Pegg being funny? And the movie as whole looks kind of fun? Even though it has Crazy Pants Cruise? HELP?!)
- Sadly, considering that this was supposed to be a treat, I didn't really enjoy this film. I thought the script was messy.
- And while I enjoyed Robert Downey Jr. in the first film with only a few reservations, in this one, coming after Benedict Cumberbatch's interpretation, he really felt unHolmesish. Something about his characterisation and/or performance is just a few degrees off. The acting is still good but I feel like Holmes needs to be more introverted and aloof, and less charming. Everything about the role needs more restraint.
- But I do really, really like Jude Law in this. His Watson is pretty great.
- The few scenes that Kelly Reilly got to show up as Mary were also good. The Watsons were really cute together before they got pushed apart.
- Can't believe they killed Irene Adler, although I suppose there is a slim chance she could come back. Her relationship with Holmes was even more awkward.
- Noomi Rapace didn't impress as Sim the gypsy, but I think that was more a fault of the writing. Like, I wouldn't actually know how to describe her character except as...good at running?
- I don't think that Stephen Fry and RDJ really worked as siblings and they didn't give Mycroft anything terribly interesting or badass to do which was disappointing.
- The film was, for the most part, really well shot.
- But yes, overall I am whelmed.
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Date: 2011-12-18 03:55 am (UTC)I really wanted more Noomi Rapace. Mycroft was almost completely superfluous. =/
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Date: 2011-12-18 05:29 pm (UTC)Good to know! I was talking about it with a friend today and she was unwillingly interested too.
I really wanted more Noomi Rapace.
Gosh, yes. She really didn't get to do much and I was so looking forward to a female character that wasn't a love interest.
Mycroft was almost completely superfluous. =/
And how sad was that? It's Stephen Frickin' Fry! The thing is, they could have posed Mycroft and Moriarty as doubles of Holmes and forced him to confront his similarities with both and that would have been really interesting. But Holmes, as RDJ plays him, isn't really on that knife's edge of sociopathy so he isn't in the position to explore that conflict.