Michael C here to see if I detect in the trailer for the Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows any cause to get excited.
I vividly remember when the trailer for Guy Ritchie's first Sherlock Holmes landed two years ago. I could scarcely believe it was real and not some ingenious Onion spoof of action movies. Ritchie took the most cerebral character in all of literature, spliced him with Bruckheimer DNA, and created some unholy concoction involving ultimate fighting, black magic, and the destruction-to-running time ratio of a Road Runner cartoon. There can be no better parody of over-the-top action movies than that trailer's climactic moment when Watson bellows "HOLMES!" followed by what appeared to be a nuclear explosion.
And then the movie was released and it turned out to be...not that bad.
No masterpiece to be sure, but as a piece of big budget Hollywood fluff I can't deny it was a pretty painless way to spend two hours. So it stands to reason this equally excessive trailer for Game of Shadows will yield a similarly decent movie, right?
To start with, let us not take Robert Downey Jr. for granted. Like post-Pirates Johnny Depp it is easy to forget that there was a time when Mr. Tony Stark was appreciated mostly by connoisseurs for his eccentric presence in stuff like Wonder Boys and A Scanner Darkly. It was only five short years ago he was still making ends meet livening up mainstream dreck like The Shaggy Dog. Now that he's appearing in more franchise flicks than Stan Lee let's not forget that he is still, as ever, fundamentally incapable of delivering a boring line reading.
Add to the mix that the filmmakers had the smarts to forgo a lot of big names to cast the invaluable Jared Harris as Moriarty. Big bonus points there. Same goes for steering focus away from Rachel McAdams' nothing of a character with Dragon Tattoo's Noomi Rapace. Maybe Holmes and Watson can spare some good lines for the lady this time.
Apart from that there's not much more to add. Everything looks pretty much the same. Beautiful visuals, elaborate set pieces, Jude Law losing his patience. Passably amusing the first time, passably amusing the second.
Or not. There is always the chance that the movie will be just as obnoxiously overbearing as the trailer suggests. If the bloated sequel mentality can drag down the likes of Captain Jack Sparrow, it can certainly take down Holmes and Watson. The fact that the best gag in the trailer features Downey in horribly unconvincing drag does not bode well.
And while we're at it, how about a little more mystery and atmosphere and a little less pyrotechnics? The mystery plot was a letdown the first time around, relying instead on the chemistry of Downey and Law over clever plotting, and the trailer suggests more of the same. I understand the requirements of the market place, but I still prefer a clever deduction over an exploding opera house, and I'd rather watch Sherlock Holmes outwit his opponents than take them down in hand-to-hand combat.
The last months of 2011 see the triumphant return of not one but two Sherlock Holmes. The BBC's fantastic modern day Sherlock is set to debut its second season within weeks of Ritchie's big budget extravaganza. Ritchie's film is sure to end up suffering by comparison, even if it is only with those lucky enough to catch the infinitely more sophisticated TV incarnation. BBC's Sherlock is to Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes what HBO's Game of Thrones is to Zack Snyder's 300.
On the whole I think the Sherlock Holmes films are a positive for Guy Ritchie whose career was atrophying with diminishing returns in the realm of colorful gangsters. Chances are good he has another hit on his hands with Game of Shadows. Will you be rushing out to see it over Christmas break? Feels like a Springtime rental to me.