Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is the sequel to the 2009 film.  Again we join Sherlock and Watson on an eve of mystery and intrigue, this time with the infamous Professor Moriarty as the antagonist.  The short of it; the newly married Watson has to cut his honeymoon short to help Holmes stop Professor Moriarty from inciting a war, simple enough?

The good; I love Guy Ritchie’s use of slow motion, it works well with how Sherlock Holmes’ mind works.  There’s some beautiful shots while they’re running in a forest.

I’m unfamiliar with the Sherlock Holmes books, but this film seems to be on its own, which is something I’m totally ok with.  And to add a little bit of history with the Germans being pitted against the French is great.  There’s even a bit of an almost World War I there with the peace summit, loved it.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are once again great.  They’re joined by Jared Harris playing Moriarty, and he doesn’t disappoint either.

The bad; the slow motion, I know I mentioned this above, but there were some scenes that I didn’t think deserved the slow motion treatment.  It was more of Ritchie showing us what he could do.  There were also a couple of times where the lighting was too dark, a good portion of this movie does take place at night, but still, that couldv’e been fixed.

Then there’s the plot, this time around the powers of deduction with Holmes felt too easy, they weren’t peppered in throughout the movie like before, instead we just get things explained to us rather than allowed to figure it with him.  It’s a small thing really, but it felt like a Family Guy cutaway, rather than part of the story.

Overall, I enjoyed the first film more, but this sequel is very entertaining.  Go check it out.