I saw the midnight showing and it's now past 6am, so I'm posting this half-asleep, half-thought out, and half-finished, because I don't want to stay up any longer but I want it posted now.

Onwards to my thoughts, squee, and criticisms of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows!
Including spoilers and overuse of the words "perfect" and "great."

Irene

I love Rachel McAdams' Irene, and I will never forgive them for doing that to her. I don't mind Holmes saving her as long as she gets her share of return-saving, which didn't happen. I don't mind her working with Moriarty as long as she's smart enough to know what/who she's working with so she doesn't end up being disposed of, inadvertently or intentionally. She's supposed to be smarter than that.

When she "died" offscreen, and even later when we saw it, I kept hoping that she had faked it. Holmes would be faking his death in this movie (I knew that with or without spoilers), so it seemed fitting that Irene could fake hers as well. Up through the very end I was desperately hoping she'd turn up again, having tricked Moriarty into thinking her dead to get out of his business alive. Maybe it would inspire Holmes to do the same, or give him the idea to sacrifice himself and fake his death, or give him useful information that Moriarty wouldn't think he'd get because Irene was supposedly gone. She could have had more uses to the plot. We already know Moriarty kills people he doesn't need anymore, so she didn't need to die to show that; just the opposite, her surviving could have been an incredible and useful exception.

Hell, her faking her death wouldn't even need to plot-relevant. Holmes could have tracked her down after faking his own death for a fun surprise ending.

So sure, in the canon she is referred to as "the late Irene Adler," suggesting that she passed away young for an unknown reason. (It could also mean that her name changed after her marriage: that she's alive and well as Irene Norton.) Not that canon has ever hindered Holmes adaptations before, but for this film's purposes perhaps Watson wouldn't know she was alive, or perhaps he'd know but would write her as dead anyway to keep her cover. Alas...

I am left sad and disappointed.

(I want fix-it fic. Fandom, you're my only hope.)

All right, I can move pass that now.


Mary

Mary is awesome! It was too cute when she was making out with Watson on the train, and then it was adorable when she found his gun. When she hid it behind her and the door opened, it's obvious that the gun is about to be needed. Knowing how women in films can sometimes be, I was worried for a moment, but then Mary came through! Watson kicked that guy's ass and then Mary had a gun to his face and was all cool and smooth and said, "John, open the door," and Watson and I were both silently like, "ohshit, Mary, I love you." Mary is awesome.

Holmes pushing Mary out of a moving train was the strangest and most unexpected thing ever. o__o I don't quite know how I feel about it. It helps that Watson calls Holmes on it several times, which I definitely appreciated.

Watson's reaction by trying to strangle/maim/kill Holmes was perfect. The film score has a track titled "Did You Kill My Wife?" which had me extremely nervous going into the movie, but as soon as Watson said that to Holmes I knew Mary was in the clear.

Mary's reaction when she was picked up by Mycroft is perfect. "There are two of you?" sounded a lot like "fuck my life, there's another Holmes. And the last one just pushed me out of a train."

I'm so happy that Mary was given Moriarty's book and she was charged with cracking the code and giving instruction to the police. I love it because it shows that Holmes trusts and respects her enough to give her the task, and that he recognizes that she's smart enough to both do it and go through with it. She doesn't need his recognition to be awesome and interesting and "worthy" of Watson's love, but it's still a great part of the Holmes-Watson and Holmes-Mary dynamic that Holmes does that. And her thrilled "That's just page two" line shows how much fun she's having.

Mary knows Holmes well, it's great how observant she is. Her response to Watson at the end is perfect: when Watson said that Holmes would have wanted them to go to Brighton for their honeymoon, she says, "he would have wanted to come with us." Brilliant woman. (Watson/Mary/Holmes 4ever.)

Mary is an absolute joy in these films. No other adaptation of her comes close to how wonderful she is in these films, even when she gets pushed off a train.


Watson-Holmes

As wonderful and hilarious as always. The entire trip to the continent played (intentionally!) like a Holmes/Watson honeymoon, as it replaced the time that Watson was supposed to be honeymooning with Mary. "Lie down with me, Watson." Fangirl heaven.

I was amused and shocked when Holmes and Watson danced. Watson's reaction is adorable: an amused smile and a "I thought you'd never ask" as he takes Holmse hand. My sister and I had a conversation about it: she thinks no one would have cared because the people of that time would not have viewed it as homosexual the way we view it now, but I think it would have been potentially damaging to their reputations because of the implications. Anyone have any insight on this? In my head-canon, I figure they were both like, "no one knows who we are here, so we can dance and it won't matter."

The film is full of Holmes-Watson moments, but I must skip them or I'd never get to anything else.


Moriarty, and Holmes-Moriarty

The Holmes-Moriarty dynamic was very rich and engaging. They got a lot of face-to-face interaction, which really adds depth and thrill to their dynamic that's missing from other adaptations. In most other adaptations with Moriarty, they only meet once or twice -- and those meetings tend to be more veiled threats than being personally engaging with each other. If I fully recall, they had three direct encounters/conversations in this, and they were all intense:
- In the Professor's office at the college.
- The arms storage with the lighthouse.
- Reichenbach chess game.

There were definitely veiled threats, and overt threats, but also a lot of studying of each other. The final battle comes down to a chess game and then a psychic deduction-off, in which Moriarty "knows" he'll win and Holmes knows he'll lose unless he takes more drastic measures. It's great that Holmes has more direct interaction with his enemy.

In an interview, RDJ said something to the extent of that this film was the most honest adaptation of the Moriarty story, and I see what he means. In other adaptations with Moriarty, he's usually up to just one heist and Holmes shows up to stop it: he's robbing a bank, or stealing some jewels, or hijacking the opium trade from rival organizations in London, or taking over the monarchy with a robot impersonation of the queen (hi, Basil the Great Mouse Detective). It's just the one crime that's thwarted. Or it's Reichenbach and they die. His greatness as a criminal is referred to, but the extent isn't really shown (probably because it's so hard to show). In this film, the extent of his reach is shown: he has many crimes and many things going on; his reach is widespread.

Moriarty is a scary bastard, his "web" of crime is extensive, and he's practically untouchable. This film goes far to show how that works and how deep he goes. It's not just about his criminal activity: Moriarty also works politics and is friendly with the right people to stay untouchable. It's certainly one of the closest looks at Moriarty himself in addition to the long reach of his work that I've seen in any adaptation.


Colonel Sebastian Moran was set up very nicely, with Holmes, Watson, and Sim figuring out how ridiculously good a shot he is. I like the Moran vs. Watson scene when Watson is hiding, Moran is capable of hitting anything that moves, and Watson finally pulls out the big gun. I hope they make a third film with some more Moran. (And bring back Irene Adler while they're at it. No, I'm never letting it go.)



Mycroft

Mycroft calls Sherlock "Shirly" and Sherlock calls Mycroft "Mycky," and they do it seamlessly and naturally. Too cute.

Mycroft greeting Mary after she's been pushed off a train: it seemed so natural to him, picking up a girl who's been flung into a river from a train, knowing his brother would push her out there. I wonder what other odd things he does in his free time.

Walking around his home ass-naked around Mary was interesting. He's obviously not used to lady folk, and in some ways he's more socially awkward than his brother. Or he was doing it entirely purposefully to see how she'd react. Yeah, let's go with that.

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about him. I liked him, he was enjoyable, especially his very-casual way of approaching strange situations. Since it's Mycroft though, I wish he'd been a little smarter and more aware and more involved.

[ETA Dec 16 8:30pm]
The thing that's most enjoyable about Mycroft adaptations is this: he pretends to be a "minor" person of little importance and no power, and then he does something amazingly useful that only a person of great power, influence, or authority could manage to do. It's Mycroft's "I hold a minor position in the British government" vs. Sherlock's (and John's) "he is the British government," with the later being hinted to be more true. But that influence/power/authority wasn't in this adaptation of Mycroft, and it felt very empty because of it.

Understandably Mycroft can't be the one to stop Moriarty, but he didn't seem to have any real behind-the-scenes influence either. His effectiveness was of someone who really did only hold a "minor position in the British government," which is an unfortunate waste of his character.

Stephen Fry did excellently in the role he was given, but this was a writing problem.
[/ETA]


Sim

Her introduction is a lot of fun. I adore how Holmes thinks through his entire fight with the assassin as he usually does, and then begins to execute it -- but then Sim interrupts by nailing the guy with throwing knives. It was refreshing and hilarious. It also shows that Sim is an active character; she exerts agency outside the protagonist's control or expectations.

Guy Ritchie is actually really good about giving his female characters agency and getting them involved. Irene and Mary both have strong agency. (It's too bad they don't interact with each other, that there are so few of female characters overall, and that Ritchie killed off Irene Adler. But anyway.) Sim is no exception, and she's an active and useful character through to the end of the film when she helps identify and stop her brother from assassinating his target.

I wish she had connected with Holmes and Watson, or anyone, a little better. They were around each other plenty and she held her own fine, but there wasn't much inter-character growth or connection. At the very end, she and Watson work together enough to do the job, which seems to bridge the gap a little, but I would have liked to see more of that direct interaction in other parts of the film. The other ladies had that with our leading men, but not her. I'd like to rewatch it and look at this more closely, since it didn't occur to me while watching the film; maybe it's more subtle or I just missed it.

*

Overall it's an enjoyable film; I liked it and I'll gladly see it again.
* The action sequences were spectacular, but could become a bit tedious as they went on and on.
* The (surviving) ladies were great, although Irene died (for which there can be no forgiveness).
* The inter-character dynamics were good, the highlights being Holmes-Moriarty and Holmes-Watson, with a lovely side of Mary-everyone she comes into contact with.

Yes, there are a lot of fighting and action sequences, and it's very pretty. And around those there's plenty of plot and build and enjoyable character moments.