I saw the trailer to this movie I think 2 weeks ago and I thought the movie looked cute with many gnomes alive. Then somehow I remembered a movie also about gnomes few years ago titled Gnomeo & Juliet. So I browsed through the internet and found out that this movie was a sequel to that one. My wife told me that the first movie was very funny and cute and she thought I had seen it. But after looking at the trailer, I realized I never did. Lucky for me the movie was already available through online streaming and I immediately see it on Thursday. Now let us move on with this sequel.
Brief Story Line
After the events in the original movie, all the blue and red gnomes were moved to London by their owners. Red's leader Lord Redbrick (Michael Caine no need for introduction) and Blue's leader Lady Blueburry (Maggie Smith - Harry Potter series, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel etc) were thinking of retiring and intended to appoint Gnomeo (James McAvoy - Split, X-Men: First Class trilogy etc) and his wife Juliet (Emily Blunt - The Girl on the Train, Sicario etc) to be their new leaders. But this new task, seemed to make Juliet too much focusing on making their new garden as the most beautiful garden and lose sight of Gnomeo.
Meanwhile a lot of gnomes in other gardens across London were missing. The famous gnome detective Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean series and many more) and his partner Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor - Dr. Strange, Triple 9 etc) believed that the missing gnomes might have something to do with Sherlock's nemesis Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou). So both of them decided to investigate this case. When Gnomeo and Juliet's family & friends were also kidnapped, they managed to join together with Sherlock and Watson in searching and saving all those missing gnomes.
So could this small group find them all through the clues left behind by the kidnappers? Find them all in this rather funny animated movie.
End of Brief Story Line
OK, after seeing this movie, I felt that it was inferior compared to the prequel Gnomeo & Juliet. In that movie, the story felt like an adaptation of the very popular Shakespeare work Romeo and Juliet, but it was a lot more fun and not having the tragic ending. And that movie was having many cute gnomes with lots of silly fun moments, romance & a little bit of emotional touching scene. But in here, the movie felt a lot less of those.
To my personal opinion, the movie seemed unclear of its direction. Was it supposed to be a movie about Sherlock Gnomes, or was it a sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet? If it was a Sherlock Gnomes movie like its title, then Gnomeo and Juliet's portion should probably be lessen a bit. But if it was a Gnomeo & Juliet's sequel, the focus on Sherlock Gnomes was too much, as it was having the characteristic of a Sherlock's movie with his deductions & investigations, his personal fight with his nemesis & having his love interest as well. Personally I think since the title was Sherlock Gnomes, the movie should be focusing on him & his investigations rather than having Gnomeo and Juliet's personal matter be sharing the spotlight.
The problem is, the lovable characters from the original movie was actually Gnomeo and Juliet. Those who loved that movie, would rather have more of their screen time. Which is why I think that the movie would be better if it was a Gnomeo & Juliet part 2, where Sherlock and Watson were the additional supporting characters. I felt that this sequel did not resonate with the audience as the funny scenes were not as much as the first one (I loved the scenes of the gnomes had to freeze themselves whenever there was a human, but there was only 2 such scenes in here). With the focus on Sherlock's investigation, the movie did not feel a good one for all ages as I think the children would be having a hard time understanding the multiple twists. Though for adults, we should have been able to guess them.
The good thing about this movie was definitely the animation. I really think they were done very beautifully. Especially the lips movement were really life like. It was as if they were really alive and speaking the things voiced by the actors and actresses. It might have been better had I saw this one in 3D as the effects would have been wonderful. One thing that I did not enjoy was the song sang by Mary J. Blige in the middle which I felt a little bit out of place and seemed to be added just to accommodate her great singing talent. But the end credit scene was fun to see as it was having some funny animations, especially the final scene which you could see at the very end, plus it was accompanied by nice songs.
In the end, the movie's intention might be good by having Sherlock Holmes' famous character adapted into the Gnomes universe. But sadly the execution and story writing was not done properly which resulted to an uneventful and unmemorable movie. What was supposed to be a wonderful movie for family was unfortunately falling rather flat and probably would make the franchise of these cute gnomes died before it had the chance to bloom. It might be difficult for them to have a profit from this movie as the ratings by critics and audience were not great. Although my wife and I could still enjoy the movie albeit not as much as the prequel. Now if you just want to see gnomes acting cute, you could opt to see this movie but it's advisable to see the first one so you could better understand it. However, if you are not a fan of such animated movie, or you are a super fan of Sherlock Holmes, better avoid watching this one as you might not like what you see. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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