SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS Trailer

By Matt Holmes / July 13, 2011

Apple have debuted the trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and it sure looks eager to please - plenty of footage (so much so that I feel like I've seen the entire film), plenty of action (Sherlock crop shots timed to Hans Zimmer's score... nice), plenty of humour, plenty of Robert Downey Jr doing his thing and very little interest in telling us what the actual story of the sequel is going to be. I mean there's a hint at what the film is about - a game of cat-and-mouse chess between Prof. James Moriarty (Jared Harris) - the big arch nemesis of the Baker Street detective and Holmes, but the real meat of the plot isn't there. I do think that was the one thing missing from the 2009 original. The setting was spectacular, actors were great, direction was ok, music was stunning but it just missed that over-arching sense of a devilish plot - which is strange given the power of Arthur Conan Doyle's source material.Indeed, the write-up at The Playlist has given me more answers to the plot than the trailer did;

This one picks up where the last one left off. Watson (Jude Law) is attempting to life a quiet married life, but of course Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr. busts back into his life and keeps sucking him into his adventures. After surviving three murder attempts from the nefarious Moriarty, Holmes teams with Watson to finally capture the evildoer who heads up a criminal organization and the two take off across Europe to track him down. Loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle€˜s short story, €œThe Final Problem,€ first published in 1893, the film then deviates from that plot and then makes room for Mycroft (Stephen Fry), Holmes€™ brother, and the inclusion of the gypsy Sim played by Noomi Rapace.

The film does look fun though and I enjoyed Guy Ritchie's first movie enough to put down my money for a follow-up with Christmas. The biggest joy of the first film, perhaps other than an unexpectedly inoffensive direction from Guy Ritchie, was the chemistry between Downey Jr and Jude Law and they look on fine form here. Never has their relationship gone quite to the level hinted at here! Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows is coming Dec. 16th, the same release date two years ago that gave earned the original over $500 million worldwide.