I would like to say I saw this last night and wholeheartedly agree with you. In fact, I would say I enjoyed it twice as much as the first one.
One thing that threw me off, though, was how little padding was in the movie. There were very few slow scenes to increase the length at all.
Yeah, I want to say that the first one had a better (i.e. more classical) dramatic structure, a better intro and leadup to the main plot, certainly. But there were some flattened places that I could see now.
I think that at the beginning, II feels a bit rushed, a bit badly done. Heck, it's got a downright awful introduction. They didn't take any time to let us know who the characters were (but on the other hand, other than a quick introduction for newcomers, any more intro would be superfluous--I'm frankly just surprised that
there was anything personality-wise to introduce. Compare the necessary character intros for the various superhero movie sequels that have been coming out recently). After you know what, though--after the glove is cast down--I think it greatly improved as a film.
The main bugaboo for me is that I really wish they'd managed to do better writing for women in this film. It was such a disappointment.
And on the other hand, the writing for the women was
really about average, possibly a bit above, and it was only in comparison to the truly excellent use of the main leads that it failed to shine.
So yeah. I really thought this movie was brilliant. I thought the first one was amazing, I think I somehow managed to enjoy this one even more, and I am almost painfully looking forward to the next (okay, okay, and Dark Knight Rising. To go with Metal Gear Solid: Rising. And bread). I have to agree with a review I read somewhere: this is the genre of movie the Pirates of the Caribbean movies wanted to be, but never quite made it to. Really, truly, splendiferously good.
Now just to keep myself from reading fanfic. I already know what the Holmesian fandom is like, and it's nothing pretty.
Speaking of Holmes, Sherlock series 2 starts on New Year's Day.
I might have to watch the first series of this, too.
Because I was unable to satisfy my powerful desire for Chinese literature, I am now craving crime fiction in any language I can even half-understand. Ahh, Gaston Leroux, mon amour.