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I know this site isn’t called ‘Bout Movies, but I’ve got to weigh in on the new Sherlock Holmes movie hitting theaters this week. Although you cannot judge a book by its cover, you often can judge a movie by its trailer. And based on the trailers that I’ve seen for Sherlock Holmes, all I can say is “Why?”.

The Sherlock Holmes stories were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The original Sherlock Holmes writings were mostly short stories. Holmes appeared in fifty-six short stories written by Doyle, but only four full-length novels.  I loved reading Doyle’s short stories as a youth.  The short length of the stories coupled with Holmes’ astounding deductive skills and Doyle’s clever plot twists never disappointed me.

Looking at the trailer for what appears to be an action film, I was both reminded of some of those great stories and put off by the apparent departure from what made Sherlock Holmes so great.  Scenes from the trailer included a shot of Holmes bare knuckle boxing.  Although he never did so in the books, he did reference a time in his past at which he was quite accomplished at the sport.  So, that isn’t a complete departure from Doyle’s character.  Likewise, he appears to be something of a womanizer in the short trailer, which would bother me except that the woman is allegedly Irene Adler, “The Woman,” so perhaps Holmes’ fans can give that a pass.

The slovenly appearance and cavalier attitude evidenced in the trailer are, however, diametrically opposed to the Sherlock Holmes that I remember.  Holmes was fastidious in his personal appearance and displayed a haughty, but serious, attitude in his work.

Whether or not the movie is a commercial or critical success remains to be seen.  I’ll leave it to others to evaluate whether or not the film is true to the character or not.  But the movie has succeeded in one fashion – I’m inspired to dig out my old copy of A Treasury of Sherlock Holmes Stories and give it a fresh read.