Bad adaptation, really bad screen writing

Rating: 1/10 (2 June 2006)

This was by far one of the worst screen writing adaptations I have ever encountered. Akiva Goldsman wrote the screenplay. He can claim fame to other scripts such as A Time to Kill, Batman Forever and The Client (among many more you'd now...and many are adaptations of novels. That would inspire some confidence that he'd do a decent job. Ha! If he didn't have such an impressive resume I'd say never let him write again. Okay that might be a bit harsh. The Da Vinci Code was never a book that could be put on screen successfully in a 2 1/2 time span, but I could have written a better screenplay.
Nothing's ever going to follow a book exactly, but this movie takes way too many liberties.
1) Fache: In the book he's stern, but he comes off as a character that you can still care for. He's strong, a bit ruthless, but has a conscious. When I learned that Jean Reno was playing the part of Fache I was excited. I could see him playing the part beautifully...that is if it had been written well. In the movie his character was portrayed as more of a mean-hearted moron than a smart yet determined man.
And what was the point of making Fache a member of Opus Dei. Seriously there are some things that can't follow the book...this was not one of them. They could have easily written the character of Fache to be portrayed as he was in the novel. This would not have been too difficult a stretch.
2) Sophie: This was by and large one of the most annoying aspects of this movie. They portrayed Sophie as a weak and 'dumb' female. In the novel she's a smart, strong, and quick thinking woman who is Langdon's equal. In the movie they barely give her a brain. All throughout. It's not just here and there a random moment or two...it's the entire movie. Bad bad screen writing.
3) Langdon: Just thinking about his lines make me cringe. I've never had to listen to facts delivers more dryly and uninterestingly (is that a word?) than I did here. Make the male strong the female weak? Is that was they were thinking? Langdon was a flat character. You're suppose to like him but he gives you no reason to feel one way or another about him. He was 'blah'. Uninteresting and a bit pompous at times.
4) Casting: Sorry, but they did an awful job of casting. Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou had no chemistry. I actually really like Audrey Tautou. I thought she was (even though they wrote her part awfully) the most believable of characters. She took what she had and made the best of it. Tom Hanks...well to me I felt like he rather be else where the entire time. I felt like he had no interest in the history he was supposedly suppose to know. Worst I felt that he didn't understand what he was spouting off and it came off so stilted.
5) Silas: He wasn't too bad, but he wasn't developed enough. In the movie he came off as evil where in the book there was this constant battle within himself. He wasn't 'good' but he wasn't purely 'evil' either. There was no dimension to Silas in the movie.
6) Bishop Aringarosa: Ugh! He suffered the same fate as Silas. He was portrayed purely as evil. No depth given to him. He was very two dimensional.
7) Sophie's Family: Shot me now. By the time we finally made it to the end I thought not much more can be butchered. I was wrong. Her whole history and family background was totally changed and not for the better.
8) Ritual: They show flashes throughout the movie of a memory of Sophie's. It's from a ritual she witnessed her grandfather partaking in. They should have left it out. They never fully explain it and unless you read the book I bet you were wondering what the hell the ritual was and why it affected Sophie in anyway.
9) Sir Leigh Teabing: Overall he annoyed me the least. Not a great character, but portrayed decently enough.
To sum it up: It all started with the screen writing and went downhill from there. Bad screen writing --> the movie was doomed before it started.
PS: I liked DB's book. Well I liked the story telling. The writing isn't great, but he was able to pull you in to the story and that made up for it.