This is a silly movie. In many ways this is what I mean when I say silly movies can also be intelligent and not insulting to the fans. I enjoyed this movie but to be fair, it is different from the first movie. While it does up all the elements of the first, it also subtracts a lot of things that I feel are missed.
A little backstory: I'm in the process of moving. I've been extraordinarily busy. But I did manage to get to see this movie on Saturday. Except the movie was sold out. At all times. Because the theater had it on the smallest screen and at only about six different times. So, I try the 12:30 show on Saturday. Sold out. I couldn't go to the 3:00 or the 5:30 show because I had to teach a class. A class that was cancelled and I wasn't told about that. So I tried to go to the 11:30 show. Sold out. Naturally I just said to hell with the 1:30 show and I'll come back tomorrow. It's now Sunday. Christmas. I go to the 9:50 show. There's one seat left. It's in the front row all the way to the left. Worst seat in the house. But, you know what? I took it. I wasn't going to wait another four hours to see this movie. I wanted to see it, I'm tired of walking the half hour to the movie theater in the horrible cold, so I took that seat. So, yes it wasn't the most comfortable experience.
This movie is very hard to talk about without giving away spoilers. Detective movies like this I'm always afraid to give something away. The details are all significant so I can't mention one thing without giving someone the hint. And that's what I liked most about this movie. Everything happened for a specific purpose. And once there is a reveal, you see all the pieces falling together. It's not like it's a complicated plan, but it is an intricate plan to do it without getting caught.
One thing that bothered me was how Holmes seems to be able to see into the future. I'm not talking about the Green Hornet/bullet time pre-fight, but more like how Holmes can set up things many steps in advance. Everything goes according to how Holmes thinks. I know it's to establish how smart he is, but it does stretch credibility a bit.
Jared Harris as Moriarty was just brilliant. He was just so evil. He reminded me so much of Hans Greuber from Die Hard. The way he can mix high brow sophistication with barbaric brutality was just wonderful.
I miss the Inspector. Inspector Lestrade really isn't in this movie. He and Holmes had great chemestry in the first movie. I would've liked to see him. But I understand why he wasn't. It's the same reason we don't see the thought process of how Holmes starts to suspect Moriarty: the movie is already 2 hours long. Some things just had to be cut.
Stephen Frye. I could've lived a happy life never seeing him naked. But that is something I can't unsee.
I really think this is a great movie. In the beginning it was very campy, full of lots of character moments and over-the-top spots. But once it started to play itself more seriously, it was very dark and dramatic. Go see it. I loved this movie. It's well worth the hassle I went through to see it.
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