Years after his last adventure, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) charts a series of assassinations and terrorist bombings across Europe. Holmes suspects a pattern, determining that Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) plans to trigger war between France and Germany while selling arms to both sides. Closer to home, Holmes entertains mixed feelings as Watson (Jude Law) becomes engaged to Mary (Kelly Reilly), though she's disposed of when Moriarty's assassins target Watson on his honeymoon. Also along for the ride are a gypsy fortune teller (Noomi Rapace), Holmes' well-connected brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) and a mysterious killer, Tiger Moran (Paul Anderson).
A Game of Shadows provides a parade of cliches. For all the intricate period detail and overdone humor (even 12 year old viewers will tire of the homoerotic Holmes-Watson jokes), Ritchie barely surpasses Michael Bay sensibilities: fight scenes, clipped exposition, rote character development, forced humor, murder, explosion. Writers Michele and Kieran Mulroney utterly fail to raise the stakes or flesh out their protagonists, even with a larger cast and threat of world war. Maybe the finale will shock you if you haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers or Skyfall. This movie's so rote it would fail a Turing test.
The deal breaker is Ritchie's direction. The original Sherlock occasionally grated with its jerky, over-choreographed fight scenes, but Shadows takes it to absurd Looney Tunes levels. The initially-cool idea of Sherlock mapping out his fight moves for the audience grows annoying through repetition. Do we really need a two minute flashback showing how Sherlock rigged a villain's rifle to misfire? When Ritchie's not shooting fights in inscrutable close-up, he's using slow motion and undercranking effects in painfully obvious ways. Watch cannon balls and bullets zip past our heroes, splintering trees and grazing cloaks!
Robert Downey Jr. wears out his welcome. Where Tony Stark successfully retained his roguish charm through four films, Downey's Sherlock becomes a self-consciously obnoxious bore. Jude Law makes a bland foil. A few glimmers come from the supporting cast: while Noomi Rapace's (Prometheus) gypsy sidekick is wasted, Jared Harris (Lincoln) makes an agreeably understated Moriarty, backed by a vicious Paul Anderson. Stephen Fry makes ideal casting as Mycroft,but he's barely in the film.
There's nothing wrong with mindless action if done well. But Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows doesn't offer anything beyond insipid cliches. There's no charm or excitement to be had, just chintzy steampunk aesthetic and Robert Downey Jr. doing his best Jack Sparrow impression. Enough already.
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