I said of the last film that the whole thing was a case of Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law lurching around the place like a pair of drunk Victorian ninjas. Well, why change a winning formula?
This time around, the whole thing is marginally more coherent, focussing as it does on Moriarty's attempts to twirl his moustache and take over the world, and Holmes attempting to overcome his own ridiculousness in order to stop him. Jared Harris makes a better villain for the piece than Mark Strong did last time, because he hams it up a little more, and is clearly having a good time with it.
I feel like this time around, Sherlock's super-power of working things out is presented rather better, as we occasionally get what looks like a psychic episode, either reading the future from the likely actions of his opponent, or, as in one occasion, deducing how a given room was built, and thus where the secret exit is, from a tiny number of cues. Whilst all the time apparently being too preoccupied to bathe.
It's still being played for laughs, but the thing is, I laughed. A lot. As an action thriller it might be seen as barely adequate, if that. Add a really thick layer of really very good comedy writing and performances, and ludicrousness becomes playfulness, and the whole thing suddenly works, despite being utter nonsense.
Put it this way; Stephen Fry is Mycroft Holmes. He would not be in a thing like this, good Sherlockian that he is, if it didn't have a lot of comedy to recommend it.
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