Movie Review; Sherlock Holmes "Game of Shadows"

What do you get when you combine a brilliant thinker, a deadly martial artist, and one who is mentally insane?

You get Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes and Watson are back in the most deadly of mysteries and mastermind they have ever faced, Professor Moriarty. A man who has no moral ethics and will stop at nothing to bring about his plan of utter domination. Holmes decides to foil this plot, and by doing so will save all of western Civilization from war... No pressure.

Things I Liked
   There was a little dialogue back and forth between Watson and Holmes about marriage. Watson described marriage as a joining, new life, promise, etc. Holmes described it as slavery, the end, a prison. The movie portrayed Watson as the on making the right choice, and Holmes immature as selfish in this aspect.

   Another particular quote I remember was "Inside every person is an innate desire for conflict...." he goes on, but I don't want to spoil anything for you. ;) This was really cool to hear from a hollywood flick, as most movies now-days promote the "man is good" mentality. Not this one. Holmes 2 argues man is basically bad and loves strife. +1 in my book.

   I liked the character of Watson in this movie as well. Although he gets married and leaves Holmes even when the greatest case of Holmes' career is discovered... He comes back and helps Sherlock with initial malice, but eventually turns back into the loyalty and friendship Holmes had grown used to over the years. He is the rudder of Holmes' ship, and is solid as a rock. Never swaying on his values or convictions, he was an impressive character and I admired the way he was presented as a trustworthy man.
   I will say he still has a gambling problem, and got quite drunk in one part of the movie. He is by no means a person one should want to emulate.

   Some other things I liked were; the dialogue is extraordinarily rich and deep, something that is rarer among films today. The slow motion fight sequences and special effects always amaze me, as it is fascinating to see the thought behind the 3 seconds of martial arts that are usually a blur. The movie is fast paced, action packed, humorous at times, and ends well.

Things I didn't Like
   There was a pretty big todo about Holmes and Watson being gay in the first movie. Honestly, I couldn't tell anything like that from the first movie, even with an eye looking for the slightest hint of something being awry. Unfortunately, Holmes can definitely be perceived as having orientation issues in this movie. In one disguise he wears women's clothing with makeup, calls his and Watson's time together a relationship (Watson corrects him "partnership"), and continually tries to separate Watson from his wife and the idea of marriage. While there are no blatant clues, the subtleties of a possible gay mindset are included, which saddened me immensely. It wasn't needed and was included only to push an agenda on the culture.

   Speaking of unneeded scenes, there was one clip that was revolting to me, totally inappropriate, and included... I have no idea why. Watson has an extremely overweight brother and in one scene he reads a letter to watson's wife in the complete nude. She of course is embarrassed, and tries looks away, we see quite a bit of his gluteus maximus, and his fat torso. He bumbles about seeming oblivious to his state of undress. The scene elicited a few chuckles in the audience, but nothing more. I honestly have no earthly idea why they had to have a guy without clothes on while reading a letter. It was supposed to be funny I guess... to me it was not.

   The final scene that really sticks in my mind and seems a little over the top was when Holmes was tortured. I won't tell you why, but the bad guy sticks a large meat hook in Holmes' shoulder, hoists him in the air, and dances around to music. It was very intense even though it was fake, I know evil is evil, but there are some lines that don't need to be crossed to prove a point. I personally think this was one of them.

   I mentioned this a little beforehand, but at Watson's bachelor party he gets drunk and gambles quite a bit.

   Some cuss words used were d--m, b------d (many times), The Lord's name taken in vain, and some others...

   This is a violent movie. The Professor likes bombs, so we see many people blown away as the bombs go off, one person is poisoned and dies, a man shoots himself, in one escape scene some people are shot... and other bad guys are shot throughout the movie... We see blood, but no gore.

There is a card reading session.

   There are a few seconds of Watson and his new wife kissing in a train car. Holmes and Irene kiss, and the women at the bar don't wear very modest clothes.

   There is smoking of cigars and such in formal settings. Holmes also has a pipe he likes to smoke quite often...

My Thoughts

   After analyzing every movie I watch, breaking it down into its parts, and figuring out just what the movie is about, I always wind up asking myself one question.

Is it beneficial?

Beneficial can mean many things. Beneficial in the terms of entertainment.... in the terms of good messages... in the terms good guy win... the list could go on. Holmes is one of those movies where part of me wants to say "yeah! go see it! you will love it!" and the other part saying "are you kidding?!? that is not a movie you should recommend to anyone." Ultimately, this movie is among the best action movies I have seen.The care and detail to the special effects wowed me. I was entertained the entire flick.

However we, as christians, have a higher standard to uphold.

For me, this movie stepped over the line compared to the first Holmes film. The inclusion of a gay agenda, mass innocent death, intense violence, and a nudist scene... makes this movie a moral and ethical failure.

It does have its high points. Good wins in the end. But couple that with a selfish Holmes who never changes for the better or the worse...

Leaves me feeling the way I did when I walked into the theater... except a little dirtier.