__The first Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes installment didn’t really do it for me. I thought the plot was completely jumbled and too much for the likable cast to overcome. However, I could recognize that the film definitely had a lot of great things going for it: namely the chemistry between Holmes (Robert Downy Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) and the frenetic directing and fight choreography of Ritchie. I could buy that this Holmes was a martial arts master because of the slow-mo fight scenes where he deduces his opponent’s moves. But I couldn’t buy that awful plot.

For Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, I felt myself more willing to go along for the ride, especially due to the addition of Moriarity (Jared Harris), who gives Holmes a greater intellectual match. However, the sequel still cannot overcome its jumbled plot, but it still becomes a fun movie because of the sum of its parts.

A Game of Shadows follows Holmes as he tries to solve the cause for several bombings in Europe, which are being pinned on an extremist Anarchist group. He believes they are the product of mastermind Moriarty, but he cannot figure out what his evil nemesis is up to. Along for the ride is, of course, Watson, who is trying to embark on his honeymoon without getting killed, Holmes’ brother, Mycroft (Stephen Fry), and a mysterious gypsy (Noomi Rapace) who is trying to figure out how her brother is involved in all the bombings.

That’s the plot boiled down to the simplest I can. There is a whole bunch of Victorian-era politics that predate World War I that I was trying to follow, but it’s mainly best to just sit back and watch Downey, Ritchie, and Holmes do what they do best, which is to make you laugh, show some badass fight scenes, and solve some mother effin’ crimes. But is is the addition of Moriarty (and Harris) that give the film any sense of weight. He is the true foe of Holmes, and he tones down all the adrenaline rush of the action sequences.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows isn’t the most spectacular of films, but it plays on the strengths of everyone involved, and it entertains despite a bogged down plot.

--Darcie Duttweiler