The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I feel like I should write about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, but I recently watched the first episode of the second season of Sherlock, which was fantastic, and that’s kind of stuck in my head. Not that Game of Shadows wasn’t good. It was silly at times, but it was fun and action-packed, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that Sherlock brings the character development and such along with the humorous bits. But I digress.

I was seeing some backlash on my twitter feed against Game of Shadows, but I can’t say I really understood why. They saw the first one, didn’t they? This is pretty well exactly what you would have expected out of a sequel to that movie: bigger, more explosions, more of the same awesome actors being all awesome. It was certainly exactly what I wanted. Sure, there were some extra-ridiculous bits, like the “fight” at the end of the movie that was all in the mind, but at the same time, that kind of crazy-ass idea for a final fight scene made perfect sense in the realm of the movie, given that that sort of “pre-planning” was always how they showed Sherlock’s prowess, so of course his equal and rival would be able to do the same. They showed that off as best they can, and in a weird way, made a very action-packed sequence that was still a battle of wits. I couldn’t fault it for that too much.

If I really had to place fault on anything in the film, it’s that the character of the tarot card reader person was really, really useless. She does nothing besides show up with magical gypsy supplies to conveniently move the plot along again and again. She’s basically just an explanation as to why Sherlock and Watson can be where they need to be when they need to be. I guess there have been worse characters in films? But she certainly wasn’t as memorable as the rest of the main cast, but at the same time was kind of forced in there because you need a female character, right? Yeah, I don’t know.

I did rather like how they mostly resolved the Sherlock-Watson-Watson Wife love/hate triangle that was set up in the first movie. Sherlock finally kind of gives in, but his solution is to make sure that Watson Wife trusts him, and brings her to his side, as opposed to just kind of apologizing and getting along nicely, which isn’t really a thing he would do. Then again, I guess Holmes’ “death” kind of solves the problem for Watson Wife before she need really do TOO much, though, so maybe they’ll bring it back if they do another sequel. I kind of hope not, though. I liked the subtle way it resolved itself.

Anyway, I didn’t find any surprises in this film. I went in looking for a fun popcorn kind of movie, just like the last one, and that’s exactly what I got. It was fun, and funny, and just plain entertaining. I’m sure if I thought SUPER HARD I’d find some plot holes and even more stupid shit. But eh. This never wanted to be something impressive. It just wanted to be fun. And it was. So there.