I finally got around to watching Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes film. I’d been dreading seeing this film since it was announced, yet in such a way that made it inevitable that I’d nonetheless see it. Because basically, I’m a complete nerd when it comes to Holmes, and so I had to watch it even though I knew it’d be bad in terms of sticking to Holmes canon. But when the first trailers were shown, I was pretty conflicted, as I’m also a big fan of the Victoriana genre in general, and the film also looked like the kind of fun action-adventure story that I’d really enjoy in general. Ultimately, my expectations proved, more-or-less, to be true. It’s a pretty decent film in terms of being a general Victorian adventure, but in terms of being a Holmes film, it’s awful. As much as I like Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in other roles (and they really are both excellent actors) I just don’t buy their characterisations of Holmes and Watson, it’s just completely off. I’ve also never been a big fan of Ritchie as a director and that hasn’t changed here. In short, there is a basis for a good film here, but it’s ruined by Ritchie’s direction and by making it a Holmes story when it so clearly isn’t.