Whizz! Bang! Crash! Wallop! Whee!

That sums up the Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows experience pretty succinctly. Admittedly, it could have done with a bit more ‘whizz’ and the gentleman next to me in the cinema who kept checking his iPad throughout the movie didn’t seem to be feeling much ‘whee’. (Also? Bad cinema etiquette. At least turn the blooping noises off.) On the whole though, it was a careening, quiptastic runaway storyline that took off, to steal Dr Watson’s turn-of-phrase, like a monkey out of a box.

In the wake of the events in the last movie, 2009′s Sherlock Holmes, our eponymous detective has become obsessed with exposing the elusive Professor Moriarty’s criminal inclinations to the world. So far Sherlock, played with an odd manic weariness by Iron Man star Robert Downey Junior, knows that Moriarty’s shadowy machinations are behind a series of deaths, violence, bombings and crimes around the world. Unfortunately, what he doesn’t have is proof.

A bit of bait and switch flirting with the dewy Irene Adler, played with just the right touch of archness by Rachel McAdams – and a quick bit of fisticuffs from interesting scared and musical thugs, gets him the closest after he rescues a corrupted doctor from Moriarty’s habit of snipping off ‘loose ends’. Unfortunately, the not-so-good doctor ends up dead and all Sherlock has to show for it is a mysterious letter he stole from Adler.

Regrettably, the doctor isn’t the only one Moriarty thinks is a loose end. Adler’s affection for Sherlock has made her…unreliable. In one of the most distinctly eerie scenes in the film, he takes her out of the game without even lifting a finger. A tap-tap-tap on a glass, by Moriarty’s stoically efficient  empties an entire restaurant in choreographed unison. Hard to tell how he pulled that off – bought off every diner, every servant  or some form of mass hypnosis – or which is more impressive.

It was an ignominious removal from the playing board for the redoubtable Adler, the woman in Holmes’ life. Since we did not see the last gasp that sent her to join the Choir Invisible, however, I choose to believe that Moriarty merely incapacitated her. The reason for her explicit removal from the plot, other than the fact having three named women in the cast might send us all gibbering into the night, does escape me though. It does not even serve as an effective goad for Sherlock, although it does provide a nicely understated emotional moment for him.

Until he finds out about Adler’s supposed death, however, Holmes biggest non-Moriarty problem is his platonic(ish) life partner  Watson’s impending nuptials. Well, it is once Holmes is reminded they are happening when Watson arrives for his stag party. Instead of admitting he’d forgotten, Holmes enlists Watson on  a trip to an underground gentleman’s club, meeting both a rather wonderful Stephen Frye incarnated Mycroft and the sloe-eyed, steely gypsy Sim.

To be honest, I was prepared to resent Sim since she appeared at the apparent expense of Adler’s role. However, the still, fierce Noomi Rapace, who stared as Lisbeth Salander in the original Danish/Swedish ‘The Girl….’ films, was a well-realised and enjoyable character. Sim, with her rakish hats and mysterious past, worked well against Downey’s mercurial, unpredictable Holmes.

It is Sim, and her dried peaches (that isn’t a euphemism for anything dirty), that provide the key to exposing Moriarty as the ‘Napoleon of Crime’, and throw a spanner in his latest, Europe-spanning scheme. After, of course, a cross-Europe chase full of exploding trains, cashiered snipers and a game little pony (honestly, the game little pony needs to make a return), ending at the iconic, terrifying Reichenbach Falls.

Despite the opinion of the iPad man next to me, this was a fun movie. Not quite as good as the original, or perhaps we were just expecting the hallucinatory glimpses into Holmes’ mind, the trauma tinnitus sound effects and odd camera angles, but steadily enjoyable, with some stand-out moments that approach brilliance. The train scene was a good ten minutes of gasps, giggles and gawking (Robert Downey Junior has very nice shoulders, I’m just saying) that ended with a wholly appropriate bang. If nothing else, the game little pony was worth the price of the popcorn.

As before, however, what makes the show is the actors. Downey’s Holmes might veer just a little from the source material – he is more of a steam-punk Tony Stark, but who would object to that? – but his portrayal of the brilliant-beyond-his-time, self-medicating consulting detective is an undeniably appealing one. There is a frantic need in Holmes manic, restless motion, as if he is scared that he will catch up with himself if he slows down. Meanwhile, Jude Law continues to remind audiences that Conan-Doyle’s original Watson was anything but a well-meaning buffoon. He is most often shoved into the role of straight-man to Holmes unpredictable genius, but there are flashes of a wild, wild side of his own that just clicks their relationship into focus.

One of my favourite elements in the relationship dynamic of these characters, is that despite their bromance (or just romance) being the heart of the movie the other relationships in their lives are not demonised. Mary, a gimlet eyed Kelly Reilly, is a formidable, if very quickly side-lined, character in her right and while Holmes’ desperately wants to stop the wedding, he doesn’t descend to insulting Mary. Nor does she, despite her justified distrust of her husband’s mad friend, deny his genius or his importance to Watson. There is a genuine respect between the characters that doesn’t require them to like each other.

Besides, Mary does get a marvellous scene where she sees more of Mycroft than anyone ever expected to see. I would love to see a tv series spin-off about Mary and Mycroft, who admits he can sort of understand why people like her company, solving crimes while waiting for Holmes and Watson to solve a crime. Fry as Mycroft is one of those castings that you side-eye, wondering why no-one has seen how obvious this was before. Of course Fry should be Mycroft, there is possibly no-one else in the world more suited for the role. Brilliant, affable and genially unambitious – perfect! (I don’t know if Stephen Fry is any of those things – other than brilliant – but that’s how I’ve always seen him.)

He is, frankly, just the sort of person you would expect to rescue you while wearing an impeccable suit. (Mycroft is considerably better turned out than his scruffy, perennially bruised up brother.)

As for the villains of the piece – well, that is one Guy Ritchie’s strengths isn’t it? Moriarty, played by Jared Harris, is a quietly alien criminal. Just as brilliant as Holmes and, despite his psychopathic tendencies, much more functional, Moriarty is an unshowy but effective villain. He outwits Holmes consistently – as Holmes does him – and while he might be defeated at the end he is never really exposed.

Most impressively of all, Moriarty has very effective hiring strategies. Other than romance-suborned Adler, his thugs-for-hire are loyal, good at their jobs and not prone to betraying him. Holmes, on the other hand, has Watson and some random gypsies. They work out well, but he hardly put much thought into it. Personally, I think Moriarty’s habit of feeding the pigeons keeps more brain cells alive than Holmes formaldehyde glugging.

There were some flaws in the movie. The slow-motion scenes – demonstrating how fast Holmes mind moves compared to the rest of the world – so effectively deployed in the first movie are over used here. Holmes internal narration has also taken a strange turn, possibly due to the formaldehyde, where he talks about omelette recipes mid-fight. Moriarty also displays this ability at one point, and they seemed to become briefly telepathic.

It slowed the movie down, playing the same scene out repeatedly, and after a while I just wanted to see Downey bounce violently around the screen.

My other problem with the movie is impossible to discuss without a rather massive spoiler, so let’s leave it at  - I think the movie should have ended before the postman arrived.

Even with these flaws considered, however, this was an unabashedly fun movie that seemed to go over well with most of the audience. I had fun, and that’s the point isn’t it?