I hope this movie will be a failure on many levels because – in an effort, I suppose, to attract a generation that doesn’t know how to read, their ads seem to rely rather heavily on pyrotechnics, special effects and 20th century “coolness” as an aspect of the characters’ personalities.

Holmes is an intellectual adventure, not a pyrotechnic special-effects extravaganza the ads seem to want to foist. He was not cool. In fact he was a dreadful snob with an onerous ego that was only redeemed by his unrealistic altruism. Any effort to make him look like Steve McQueen helping prisoners escape from Nazi Germany is misguided and unfaithful. Yet the ads seem to present him as if ready to jump on his motorcycle and go jump some barbed wire fences.

I lose patience with efforts to implant contemporary attitudes or even mannerisms to people who lived or represent lives from another era.

Holmes is a period piece. Have we become so anti-intellectual in this country that we assume younger audiences can’t “get” this kind of thing without the fireworks or a two-day stubble? Why yes, yes we have.

But it’ll probably be a great box office success. And also forgotten by this time next year.

I will go see this, and I hope to enjoy it in spite of all the excellent objections raised above.

Jeremy Brett was the best portrayal I’ve seen (and yes, I’ve read the stories), though he was a bit more abrasive than Holmes was intended to be, I think.