It all depends on if you read the book.

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2009)

If you did not, this movie is pretty good. Well paced, well- explained with timely exposition, well cast and well plotted. No dangling loose ends. Highly entertaining.
The problems are only for the people who did read it
****LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS******* Ron Howard (One of my favorite Directors) appears to have made way too many arbitrary changes that don't advance the plot. Here they are in the order that they occurred to me while watching the film.
1st, CERN does not bring in Langdon, the Vatican does. This cuts out the entire CERN Director 11th Hour Samaritan plot line. The first brand is not actually a brand but a fax copy of the Illuminati ambigram. I can argue this either way due to time constraints but I did not like it. 2nd, Olivetti is no longer the Swiss Guard commander for reasons that make no sense at all. This makes Richter the new Swiss Guard commander with Olivetti in a support role. The film lists this as part of the jurisdiction nightmare that is Vatican City. Since Olivetti dies on schedule, this makes no sense to me. Richter could still have done his part. But without the CERN director Richter takes that role in trying to unmask the Camerlengo with a new character taking Richters place as the second person to die as an Illuminatus in the Papal office.
Since the director is no longer in the film this has to be done by someone. Might as well be Richter. 2nd a. It is made clear that the events unfolding are after the DaVinci Code not prior as it was written. Again I am sure that this was to avoid confusion to the people who had not read the book. 3rd, Changing the professional killer from an ASSASSIN from the Middle East with Misogyny issues to a paid professional actually worked for me. Right up until this paid killer actually takes a vehicle, prepared by his employer, which is supposed to have his final payment. No way would that happen. A hired hit man has to worry about his employer as well as the authorities. Someone who did that job for a living would not just walk into that lame trap especially after all the other payments had been EFT to his Isle of Man Account. If I am not mistaken, the Isle of Man is a tax shelter that has very strict banking laws about giving account info to anyone. Cops included. Since this guy is no longer a misogynist that takes away the entire Vittoria has been kidnapped for immoral purpose plot. This takes away Langdon's more personalized reason for wanting to find the Temple of Illumination. Okay that means we never hear about Yoga or that Landon never gets his carnal reward by having hot, wild, intense sex with a Yoga Mistress. For personal reasons, I will say that is something not to be missed if the opportunity is available, BELIEVE ME. Also, no fight between the Assassin and Langdon & Vittoria. I wanted to see it. 4th, Langdon saves the fourth preferiti, Cardinal Baggia. I will refer back to this because it allows a major change. One that serves no purpose that I can tell. 5th, they removed all reference to the Illuminati Diamond. They changed the 6th Brand into a set of crossed keys to indicate the Papacy. Why? This change served no purpose. 6th, as a direct result of the 4th change, we get a condensed version of the Camarlengo's divine revelation of where the Antimatter is. Again I believe this to be a time constraint versus Plot pacing. Could be argued either way. 7th, Langdon does not get into the helicopter with the Camarlengo. This COMPLETELY removes the saved by possible divine intervention sub-plot. One of the things that I truly wanted to see in this film was Langdon's Fall and Survival. This is where the filmmaker lost me. That scene is pivotal to this story. The Camarlengo is SEEN using a parachute rather than the appearance of Divine Intervention which also negatively impacts the story, in my opinion. 8th, Instead of an audio recording of the conversation between the Director and the Camarlengo, we get video from Richter's office. I won't quibble about this except to say I preferred the scene as it was written in the Sistine Chapel. 9th, We don't get to hear the Camarlengo defend his actions to the entire College of Cardinals. Granted we do see him try to justify himself to Richter so I guess the exposition is in there but because of the way it was done we lose the entire Pope as actual parent to the Camarlengo due to artificial Insemination of his former Nun mother sub-plot. AS stated in the book, the use of artificial means meant that the Pope was still celibate and therefore not in violation of church law. I can only assume that this was removed to keep the peace with the Catholics since they don't seem to be very reasonable on this issue. This is just my opinion and is not meant to offend but merely clarify. Reasonable people can disagree without reducing their opponents to evil caricature. A direct result of this revelation to the Camarlengo was his self-immolation. Instead we have a priest who is running from authorities and decides to kill himself. I prefer the book version. 10th, in a direct result of 4th change, Cardinal Baggia is elected Pope instead of the Great Elector cardinal. No reason given. No reason for this change that I can see. Totally arbitrary and without purpose. Mr. Howard and Mr. Hanks had me until the helicopter and from then on I was extremely disappointed in how the story plays out. I am truly sorry that these changes were made and will continue to prefer the book.