Dull experience

Rating: 3/10 (26 December 2006)

I read the book beforehand, and it's by no means a great book, but I think certain things work better for literature than they do on film, and this is one of those cases. Without spoiling anything the whole back storyline about the Knights and the Grail and the bloodline and whatever else is pretty absurd in both the book and film, but in the film the plot line in the present is greater exposed. For instance in the book the constant chase sequences were pretty exciting, but in the film it becomes more clear that the cat and mouse game lacks imagination and more or less is an elaborate version of peek-a-boo. And the changes they make in the movie version, while I understand some had to be done for time constraints, for the most part do not seem to help it, and only make it a lesser experience. One last thing about the movie book comparison: the weak character development in the book is also greater exposed in the movie. That last one is this movie's greatest failure.
Now judging the movie by itself it just comes off as dull: dull dialog, dull characters, and for the most part dull action sequences if one even wants to call them that. Tom Hank's performance as Dr. Robert Langdon, the main character of the story, is one of the most underwhelming and dry I've ever seen him do, and Audrey Tautou as Agent Sophie Neveu falls flat right from her weak introduction, with her motivations hardly ever being clear. What one is left with are some nice plot twists, and Ian McCellen's worthy performance of historian Leigh Teabling.
I have to admit stories like this just aren't my thing. I just don't get enticed by these silly treasure hunt stories, as would be clear from me disliking the movie National Treasure as well. But I think I like this movie even less because Nation Treasure knew it was being silly, while this film tries to take itself a little more seriously and the results are less entertaining. I can understand how one could come to saying this is a passable experience. However I would recommend this to no one. Like I said at the beginning of this review it works better as a book. As a film the story flaws are exposed more clearly, and it's unfortunate a great director like Ron Howard couldn't have done more with it.