Fun ride for the whole family

Rating: 7/10 (27 February 2006)

Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown. Replace Benjamin Franklin with Leonardo Da Vinci and moderately correct American History with moderately correct Relegious History in the movie, and Dan Brown could have made another bundle by suing Disney.
It is incredulous at most times, when Ben Gates solves 200 year old puzzles by thinking aloud for 200 seconds or less. And of course, unlike Dan Brown's novel, it does not really claim to be based on solid historical facts. It is a clear fiction, and a well delivered one at that. Too simplistic at times, perhaps, but I wasn't looking for an intellectual thriller. And you shouldn't either.
But within its own genre, it delivers quite a package. You have history unraveled to reveal an elaborate scheme of hiding a treasure. A treasure so vast that it cannot be shown in all its glory. You have codes; clues leading to clues leading to an inviting adventure, to a promise of unimaginable richness that seem to elude the hero every time. Almost like leading a donkey by dangling a carrot in front of it. You have a villain hell bent on reaching the carrot before Ben does. You have car chases, a high profile theft, explosions, and riddles to solve. Everything the doctor recommended. But don't bother trying out the riddles. They don't really make much sense, and in any case, the hero will solve them before you can fully read it.
Another objection is that the plot moves a TAD bit too easily, in my opinion. Just a little bit, but on the whole, the movie fares pretty well.
Irrespective of whether the codes made sense or not, the codes were interesting. And as far as the hero's ridiculously uncanny ability to solve riddles are concerned, you may argue along the same lines about the Da Vinci Code as well. If you're really interested in codes, try and read just every EIGHTH word of this review and you'll find out what I really think about the movie...
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Just kidding. But that would have been cool, what?