Last night my oldest son and I caught the 6:15 showing of The Da Vinci Code. The theater was about three quarters full. We were told that later showings of the movie were sold out. A few chuckles from the crowd at various points during the showing, but no applause, no cheering, no significant emotion, nobody saying how good the movie was when we exited. It was a somewhat lifeless and unevenful experience.

Having never read the Dan Brown novel, but listened to the audiobook a couple years ago, most of the story came back to me as the movie unfolded. For those looking for an action flick, they will be disappointed because there is very little action. Looking for a romance? Not one of those either. It’s more like a mystery right down to the final frames.

It’s the story of author and puzzle expert Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) being drawn into an ancient battle and quest for the Holy Grail along with Sophie Neveau. The main antagonist is Silas who believes in whipping himself and wearing some kind of object around his knee that inflicts pain.

The Da Vinci Code is on the long side and has way too many subtitles. I kept wanting to reach for the remote to turn them off. I remember the audiobook peppering the story with French. It was an overdone technique in the film. We get it, they are in France.

The sound was nothing special and one review said there was too much music, I don’t recall that being an issue. There were a couple of sudden expense moments. The camera work was competent capturing various scenes inside the Louvre and elsewhere. I understand that it’s very rare that anybody gets to shoot film inside the Louvre, so Richie Cunningham and crew were excited.

Unfortunately that excitement didn’t transfer to most the acting. One critic described Tom Hanks as a zombie and that’s a fair criticism. He doesn’t really show much emotion at all at any part in the film. His supposed fear is completely unbelievable. If his job was to play bewildered then he did that through the entire film awkwardly except at key puzzle solving moments where he displayed an uncanny amount of puzzle solving knowledge. And then it was back to being the deer caught in headlights. He sort of reminded me of how he played in the Castaway, yet without the good acting parts. It’s like he was stoned and sobered up when somebody whipped out a rubix cube. Disappointing.

Sophie Neveu’s (Audrey Tautou) acting was marginally better than Hanks. She wasn’t credible as a police officer and some of the scenes were clearly there to advance the incredible amount of backstory. At one point she pays off a guy cooking heroin in the park so they can have some space to think over the puzzle, no really.

Alfred Molina who played Dr. Octavio in Spider-man 2 seems to be going through the motions as Bishop Aringarosa. Paul Bettany plays Silas the pained man who believes he’s on a mission of God is downright painful to watch.

Sir Leigh Teabing AKA Magneto from the X-Men (Ian McKellan) plays a crippled man obsessed with the grail quest. This is the brightest acting spot in the movie and one character with some serious passion. The computer work in his house is done particularly well and at his house is one of few spots in the film that I wasn’t hoping they’d move it all along.

Since I covered and played the Da Vinci Quest through Google every day and liked the storyline of the audiobook I really wanted to enjoy this movie. Alas, it seemed like an average unexciting film. Despite the wonderful, creative prerelease marketing, I don’t think this film is going to be reviewed or received well overall. Ron Howard is being credited as saying this is a movie you need to see multiple times to counter the negative reviews. I won’t be seeing this in the theaters although I see many more creative opportunities with the DVD release. Imagine the various puzzles and extras they could pack in? This might be something with the HD-DVD where they could include puzzles to solve at various points … wow, the opportunities are endless. I think this movie, sort of like Doom with the Rock, makes a better game than movie. In fact, I might rent the PS2 game from Hollywood Video later today if it’s available.

I asked our teenager son on a grade scale (A - F) what he thought of the movie and he gave it a C. I concur. Save your money for the DVD unless you just have to make up your own mind on this film as I did. This movie will do well opening weekend in box office receipts because it is playing in so many theaters and there has been considerable controversy, but the onslaught of negative reviews will make it so this one doesn’t come anywhere near to the top 10 as I had once thought possible. I was really, really hoping the early bad reviews wouldn’t be accurate. Wrong.

I’m going to continue to follow some more reviews of the film below after posting, so might want to check back for links to other reviews from critics and bloggers. Sorry Richie, this movie needs a good dose of the Fonz.

Other Da Vinci Code reviews
The cream of Rotten Tomatoes crop gives The Da Vinci Code an abysmal 9% out of 100% rating. That’s nearly as bad as A Sound of Thunder.
Ilana: “I was impressed with the visuals in the movie. I did enjoy the movie, even though I did not expect to :). They changed quite a bit, they had to, but the story still held together very well.”
Matthew: “I love it when I disagree with the critics. The Da Vinci Code. Arguably one of the most controversial stories in recent memory. The movie rocked. Seriously.”
Mark points out the grades of mainstream press:

The New York Post: A
The Seattle Post Intelligencer: B+
The Chicago Sun Times: B
The San Fransisco Chronicle:B-
Entertainment Weekly: C+
New York Times: C
Hollywood Reporter: C-
Rolling Stone: D

Jenn: “It was an interesting movie, but not a great one. It was a bit long, although I’ll say it held my attention well almost the whole time. When we left Scott was like ‘What the heck was the big deal about the book?? That was not that great.’ Poor, poor man who doesn’t read.”
“Not a bad movie but certainly not the film that Hollywood is hoping it to be.” writes HTPCdude.com

Did this post make you go hmm?

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