Not as bad as people are saying

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2006)

I read the book - just like everybody else - and so when i went to see this movie, given all the bad reviews id heard about it, i was fearing the worst. Most of the reviews complain that all the actors do is just stand around talking, and that, although i guess is right, is not a problem at all if your actually listening to what they're talking about.
For me, personally, it's the first half that's the problem. The film starts off as if its already in the middle of the plot, with everyone in there current situations around the globe all visited in the first few minutes. This prevented us getting to know the characters, there was no build up to the main events of the film - they were happening from the second the title came up.
For me, the beginning needed to be a lot slower. More attention should have been paid to introducing Langdon to us instead of him getting involved in things 5 minutes into the film. From the second he was at the Louvre, everything seemed to going so quickly - they were solving clues in record times and it just seemed, well, too scripted - there was no real pause for thought.
But once that first half of the jungle that is the book is cleared, the characters find themselves at Teabings house, and from this moment on the film is great. It keeps you gripped, interested in what is happening, and as far as i can recall (i read the book a year ago) stuck pretty closely with the book barring a few selected omitted parts.
Its this intriguing second half of the film that gets my votes. Id buy the DVD when it comes out. If the first half were slower (such as more time taken for the opening scene in the book at the Louvre, Langdons conference thing, and, well, basically all the parts in the Louvre after that), this film would have been excellent and everything id hoped for. Some things are even explained better in the film than they are in the book.
Whether the director or the editor is to blame for these discrepancies we shall never know. But Ron, i was expecting a little more care be put into the flow and pacing of this story.