Blu-ray Review - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

What is the appeal of Sherlock Holmes? In the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, he's very smart, and he solves puzzles in reverse. He looks at an object, or a situation, or a person, comes up with several bizarre conclusions, and then after a period of bafflement, he explains how he came up with them. He's obsessive and somewhat witty, in a slightly damaged way, and forever wanting input. He has let only one person into his circle: the good Doctor Watson. Watson is the narrator, the chronicler, and the constant wide-eyed audience for Holmes' tricks.

Now, what is the appeal of Guy Ritchie's movie Sherlock Holmes(2009)? Robert Downey Jr. makes a perfect Holmes, also in constant need of input, clever, funny, and able to do a perfect English accent. Jude Law makes a perfect Watson, just slightly less interesting than the star, but embodying all of Watson's sturdy qualities.

So what went wrong with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Ritchie's second movie in what could presumably become a series? Basically, Ritchie forgot about all the things that were appealing about the original stories and the previous movie.

Now Holmes is almost a supporting character. There are far too many scenes in which he doesn't appear or is not the focus. Whereas Holmes is usually self-centered and emotionless, he's now worried about Watson's new marriage, and about losing his friend forever. This Holmes is apparently unable to function without Watson. (Their relationship here is decidedly homoerotic; they even dance together in one scene.) Watson is more or less the lead here; he frets about the safety of his new wife (Kelly Reilly), and is -- for some reason -- now as good at deducting things as Holmes ever was.

There's no mystery. The plot is all about Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris) attempting to start a world war so that he can profit from it. That's it. It's not even a clever plan... just a greedy one. And it's not particularly challenging to figure out. So there's nothing for Holmes to detect here, or deduct, except for some small, insignificant moments that go by far too fast.

The real focus is on fighting. In several scenes, Holmes pre-imagines all the moves in an approaching brawl, and then intercepts them before they happen. This would be fine, if Holmes were a superhero. But he's a detective. He's supposed to be using his brain.

Indeed, there's nothing wrong with changing things around when adapting familiar characters to the screen, but Ritchie has systematically made bad choices in each case. Everything that worked, or was appealing, before is now turned into something much more simplistic, and without reason. Even the many fights, chases, and explosions in this movie are terribly run-of-the-mill and uninspired. In short, it's a matter of changing an intellectual character into a physical character, but meanwhile betraying everything intellectual and physical.

I did like the expanded character of Holmes' brother Mycroft, played by Stephen Fry, and I liked the couple of scenes in which Holmes and Moriarty sit down together for some tense discussions. Noomi Rapace is here as a gypsy, presumably because she was popular last year as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but she does little more than gape. Rachel McAdams has a few scenes as Irene Adler, but -- again -- without the appeal that character had in the last movie. Downey is fine and funny in a couple of scenes, but there's a profound sense of waste; we want much, much more from him.

Warner Home Video has released a two-disc combo pack with a DVD, a Blu-ray and a digital copy. The big extra is "maximum movie mode," hosted -- happily -- by Robert Downey Jr., who delivers the expected kooky riffs. There's also about 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and a promo for a movie-related app, which can somehow be synced to the Blu-ray for more interactive madness. Movie and sound quality are superb, which is to be expected.

Review: Marvel's The Avengers

The new superhero movie, officially titled Marvel's The Avengers, is unlike anything else in history. Never before have five summer blockbusters been made over the course of four years to set up the characters for one super-blockbuster. Fan anticipation has been intense, ever since IronMan and The Incredible Hulk hinted at the idea in 2008.

Now The Avengers is here, and, in many ways, it out-blockbusters them all.

The crucial element is writer/director Joss Whedon, best known for his beloved cult TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly." Whedon has an affinity for extraordinary misfits and affectionate humor, and a touch for balancing ensembles. This widely mismatched cast starts with the excellent thespians Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), and Tom Hiddleston (Loki), and touches on the awesome star power of Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury). 

Toward the bottom, there's Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor), both of whom were arguably cast more for looks than for personality. Among several other familiar faces in walk-on parts, Whedon has made the sublime choice of shaggy, wounded Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner (and The Hulk), replacing Edward Norton. Whedon then works his magic and makes them all equals. If Downey steals one scene with dialogue, then Hemsworth gets a complementary scene of passionate rage. 

Of the five previous movies, last summer's Thor had the best villain, the impish Loki, and Whedon has effortlessly relocated him here. Loki's new plan is to use the "Tesseract" -- a glowing cube -- to invite evil alien armies to help take over the earth. The Avengers are called upon to stop him, but unfortunately, they don't yet know or trust one another.

Thus we get our very simple theme: all of these outsiders, each given a "terrible privilege," can become something greater by learning to work together. Whedon conjures up some beautiful moments of teamwork in the thick of battle, including one of Hulk slamming a piece of shrapnel into the neck of a giant monster, and Thor hammering it home.

This movie has it all: gorgeously clear action, humor, suspense, and even passion. It's not going too far to guess that no other summer movie will touch it. Yet The Avengers takes place in a dark world of heightened military fear, wherein a nuclear missile is launched as effortlessly as making a piece of toast. Fury admits that he has assembled the team as a form of stockpiling weapons against as-yet-unimagined threats, which ironically is a threat in itself. Oddly, this is quite the opposite of the themes in the two Iron Man movies. Whedon's reasons for treading this paranoid path are ambiguous and slightly puzzling.

However, the world needs its heroes for many other reasons. During their trials they find their true selves, coming away ever so slightly stronger than they were as individuals. And all those misfit audience members -- shy, awkward, uncertain... i.e. most of us -- know exactly what the movie is really about.