A Waste of Talent and Money

Rating: 4/10 (1 June 2009)

I have not read the book,and quite liked The Da Vinci Code so my anticipation level for this film was set quite high. Not only was I sorely disappointed, I was frustrated that so much money and acting talent had been squandered on what was basically quite a good premise for a blockbuster.Ron Howard's Directorial debut is a mess.
One of the ironies of "suspension of disbelief" is that you have to earn that right through believability.It is at this level that things fail.So a bomb is set to go off that will wipe out the whole of the Vatcian City - thats fine, i'm on board for the ride.But Howard fails to convince from start to finish. Why should Tom Hanks, as hero Robert Langdon, risk life and limb ? Why are murders committed in the fountains of busy piazza's with none of the bystanders noticing? At the end, how can the injured bad guy standing only a few feet away from Langdon and the massed ranks of Vatican Security outrun them for the finale ? The setting is superb and the visuals lush.The action sequences are numerous and well executed.Yet Hanks is lacklustre and the story told in such a preposterous way that I simply lost interest rousing myself to pay attention when Howard desperately injected another adrenaline shot into a fading corpse.
At 2 hours and fifteen minutes with too much money and time, Howard is lazy and fails in the fundamental skill of telling a good story.