While Watson is playing cards, Holmes visits the gypsy Simza (Noomi Rapace), who may have knowledge about Moriarty's plans.Ī Game of Shadows contains a number of standout action sequences, including a four-on-one encounter between Holmes and some thugs, a chase-and-escape at Watson's bachelor party, fireworks on a train, a torturous sequence involving a meat hook, and an artillery-impeded race through a forest. To celebrate the impending nuptials, Holmes (in his duty as the Best Man) arranges a "stag night" for Watson that involves the company of Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft (Stephen Fry), and a lot of drinking. John Watson (Jude Law), Holmes' assistant and lone friend, is about to embark upon a matrimonial adventure with his beloved Mary (Kelly Reilly). He is also employing Holmes' "ideal woman," Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), as a messenger Moriarty is displeased when she fails in a mission as a direct result of Holmes' intervention. He is using anarchists and an ex-military sharpshooter to carry out assassinations. The endgame of the master criminal's plotting is invisible to Holmes, but the immediate results are not. That changes when Holmes begins interfering with Moriarty's nefarious schemes. As the movie opens, Holmes and Moriarty (Jared Harris) are already crossing swords, although not directly. It sews closed the holes left in the patchwork cloak that was the narrative of the 2009 film. It makes sense, therefore, that Ritchie would bring Moriarty to the screen - what better rival for Robert Downey Jr.'s incarnation of the detective than a man who can match him in deduction, gamesmanship, and physicality?Ī Game of Shadows is not an adaptation of "The Final Problem," although it borrows elements from the story. Moriarty appeared in only one of Conan Doyle's 60 Sherlock Holmes stories (the aforementioned "The Final Problem") but has become a staple of Holmes lore and is frequently employed in the ever-growing non-Conan Doyle library of the detective's adventures (Reichenbach Falls notwithstanding). Holmes' equal-but-opposite, Moriarty is the perfect foil for the consulting detective - a brilliant mathematician whose intelligence matches that of his adversary. A Game of Shadows is a stronger, better realized movie that builds upon the strengths of the original and jettisons some of the weaknesses.įor the nearly 120 years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the character in the 1893 story, "The Final Problem," James Moriarty has been a fan obsession. No longer as reliant upon visual flourishes and spastic camera movement, the director allows the story to be the primary source of propulsion. For the sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Ritchie's more confident style betrays his assurance. Ritchie's vision was validated by a strong world-wide box office. When Guy Ritchie re-invented the world's best-known detective for his 2009 Sherlock Holmes, no one knew how the movie would be received. It can be argued that few things embolden a filmmaker more than success.
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