Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows
Dec. 26th, 2011 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherAfter thinking it over for a few days, I figured out what I didn't like about Sherlock Holmes #2.
The tone of the film was uneven: at times serious, sad, dramatic, but mostly farcical, and I was not expecting a farce.
Near the beginning of the film, Holmes is revealed wearing some "urban camoflage" that makes him blend into the wall of his home, so that Watson can't find him. He looks ridiculous in this outfit, and it reminded me of nothing so much as the Pink Panther:
Here Steve Martin wears a similar outfit, which blends into some wallpaper, for his own farcical detective movie.
Several other scenes struck this same tone: Holmes riding a miniature horse-- unrealistic, and a way that seems we are meant to laugh at him for being afraid of horses. Wearing drag, because he makes an unattractive woman-- again, it felt like I was meant to laugh at him (although as a slash fan I am capable of reading this scene a different way; it also seemed like a great genius like Holmes should be able to come up with a better costume? I felt the same way about the Chinese costume in the first scene--it seemed amateurish somehow).
This whole "object of ridicule" feeling for Holmes did not seem in keeping with the tortured genius detective character that I was expecting from the first film and from the general canon, and it threw me out of the movie.
The bright spots of the film were the secondary characters: Mary Watson and Sizma being BAMFs, and Mycroft Holmes being amusing and queer. I also liked the effects and the set pieces. Irene Adler's death seemed completely unnecessary.
Overall, I was expecting more Great Detective and less Pink Panther, and so this movie was a disappointment. I probably won't watch it again.
The tone of the film was uneven: at times serious, sad, dramatic, but mostly farcical, and I was not expecting a farce.
Near the beginning of the film, Holmes is revealed wearing some "urban camoflage" that makes him blend into the wall of his home, so that Watson can't find him. He looks ridiculous in this outfit, and it reminded me of nothing so much as the Pink Panther:
Here Steve Martin wears a similar outfit, which blends into some wallpaper, for his own farcical detective movie.
Several other scenes struck this same tone: Holmes riding a miniature horse-- unrealistic, and a way that seems we are meant to laugh at him for being afraid of horses. Wearing drag, because he makes an unattractive woman-- again, it felt like I was meant to laugh at him (although as a slash fan I am capable of reading this scene a different way; it also seemed like a great genius like Holmes should be able to come up with a better costume? I felt the same way about the Chinese costume in the first scene--it seemed amateurish somehow).
This whole "object of ridicule" feeling for Holmes did not seem in keeping with the tortured genius detective character that I was expecting from the first film and from the general canon, and it threw me out of the movie.
The bright spots of the film were the secondary characters: Mary Watson and Sizma being BAMFs, and Mycroft Holmes being amusing and queer. I also liked the effects and the set pieces. Irene Adler's death seemed completely unnecessary.
Overall, I was expecting more Great Detective and less Pink Panther, and so this movie was a disappointment. I probably won't watch it again.
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Date: 2011-12-27 03:25 am (UTC)Also, the ending gave me Buffy s5 flashbacks.
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Date: 2011-12-27 03:37 am (UTC)How did it remind you of Buffy?
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Date: 2011-12-27 03:49 am (UTC)s5 buffy, the season finale, had buffy nobly sacrificing herself to save the world. really. it wasn't that she was suicidal and looking for an excuse at all. nope. not even one bit. [rolls eyes]
so the whole "i must kill myself along with moriarty because it is the only way to save those i love" made me pretty eyerolly.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 05:27 am (UTC)