Entertaining, if you can ignore the plot holes

Rating: 5/10 (5 August 2014)

Not having read the book (or any books by Dan Brown), I found this flick rather entertaining when I watched it just recently on a long-haul flight. So yes, the movie serves its purpose of killing approx. 140 minutes of your time on a rainy afternoon, during travel et cetera. But does it accomplish this in a smart way?
No, and this for several reasons: First of all, it's one of the movies where the protagonists keep on talking and explain even the most basic things, so the audience will get it. Second, there is no wasted screen time: If they mention something, you can be very sure it will be used in a certain way or become a danger to someone later on.
However, the obvious plot holes bothered me much more (and the per se nice twist at the end opens those holes even wider): Why, for God's sake (sic!), all the effort from the evil guy? Yes, sure, he wants us to believe something wicked is going on, but let's admit that the first body probably would have never been found - Even Langdon found the entrance merely by chance. Just shooting the four hostages would have severed the purpose just fine. Why bring in Langdon at all? So somebody could find the bodies, and in the same way to put the whole operation at risk? What if Langdon failed to find the bomb? In other words, the movie failed to explain the villain's motivation for all this in any plausible way, especially as all the other stuff is explained over and over again.
Then there is this professional killer who manages to virtually eliminate half of Rome's police force (ammunition never runs out, of course), but is stupid enough to... well, find out for yourself.
Or just basic things, such as the retina scanner: The bad guy cuts out somebodies eye to bypass the retina scanner. However, he needs to go through it to get into the specific lab where the guy that he murders sits. Don't tell me you only need to scan your eye on the way out, but not in. Even if that would be the case, there was blood on the scanner on the outside, but the eye is on the inside, close to the dead body. Hello?! And the movie is full of such things. Enjoy!