Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Four out of Five Stars
My husband and I braved the last-Sunday-before-Christmas-crowds at the Legends shopping center to watch this latest installment in the Sherlock Holmes universe. Strangely, our theatre (the largest one at the Phoenix Theatre complex) was sparsely populated for the mid-afternoon matinee. Be that as it may, we thoroughly enjoyed the film. The musical score grated less on the ears this time (more classical orchestration instead of the out-of-tune upright piano cacophony overused in the first movie). I can’t wait to re-watch this on DVD so I can pause it and examine certain scenes minutely. Even with my photographic memory, modern day editing gives viewers nanoseconds to absorb an incredible amount of relevant detail. Despite the dreary gray British and French winter countryside, the cinematography was gorgeous, the highlight being the Swiss Alps. The action frequently sported ultra-high-speed slow-motion sequences, punctuated with excellently choreographed audio.
