Where did it all go right?

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2009)

OK, so having read the reviews excoriating this movie I allowed myself to be dragged along to to see it with low expectations. I have now realised that Irish Times journalist Donald Clark is in fact a reverse barometer. He gave it 1 star out of 5. OK so it is not 5/5 but it is a respectable 3/5 and an amusing way to spend a couple of hours, even exciting. It is in fact much better than the Da Vinci Code mainly because it has better pacing, some genuinely exciting scenes and it is better visually.
It is a chase movie and like the airport book it was inspired from, it is pretty vacuous abusing the disciplines of history, physics and logic in equal measure. But it's fun. You don't go to a movie like this expecting a watertight plot or expecting a message to humanity. You go because you want a bit of entertainment and popcorn. You don't expect the hero to die, you know he will save the day in the end. But so what? When you go on a fairground ride you know how it will end, but you expect thrills none the less.
And if you are a physicist who is offended by scientific impossibilities, then you are in the same class as the religious types offended by the Da Vinci Code, unable to suspend disbelief.
Does what it says on the tin.