A gripping thriller that falls on deaf ears.

Rating: 6/10 (21 July 2013)

I think Ron Howard did a great job, but the script brought the film down like a dead weight. Whenever an interesting relationship or element pops up, it's left and we continue on, and with the film being pretty fast paced and 'OMG NO TIME LEFT, Wilson' this does work most of the time, but I found myself wanting a break from the primary action about 2/3 of the way in.
But, here's the reason I decided to write a review. The freaking dialog, it's awful. Probably around 95% of the dialog is just exposition, a history lesson or a cue for the people who didn't pick up the visual tell. It is a deeply historical film and therefore needs the contextual underpinning, but we don't need to know every detail about everything that gets mentioned. It drags the plot and at times, can be frustrating.
Lastly, I think there was a female actress in there. I don't know. I think she popped up every time needed a translator or the heroic professor was left by the police. All she seemed to do was answer questions or give Langdon an excuse to think out loud. Which is a shame, because the relationship between science and theology is one of the key topics of the film, and this ambiguous female character - a scientist at CERN - could have been the link between these. But no, all the seemed to do was act a medium for Langdon's thought.
Other than the script, it is quite a well-made film and is definitely worth a watch if you're up for a bit of gung-ho church-hopping.