Failed to live up to the book hype

Rating: 5/10 (18 September 2010)

The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code, before viewing I had heard all the hype about the book, but I have never read it. After watching the film I now must read the book if for no other reason than to find out what the hype was all about. Now, I am not saying it was a horrible film I think it was a victim of over editing. By not including enough key details intact, I was confused or bored for most of the film; I am however assuming the book has these needed details of course.
I am a huge Tom Hanks fan; he can make even a bad movie mediocre, which is what I believe his character Robert Langdon did for this film. He played his role with his usual passion and enthusiasm, and managed to keep me somewhat involved. Another character that kept this film alive was that of Silas (Paul Bettany) a crazed albino monk belonging to a branch of Catholicism known as Opus Dei. He played the part great, and was truly an interesting character that I wanted to learn more about.
I believe the scene lengths were too short. I believe this was done to hasten the pace of the film, but what it did for me was make scenes that were too short to fully absorb what had just happened. As for the film lighting and picture quality, they did a great job; the dark scenes were comfortably to view and no overly bright spots. The soundtrack on the other hand was horrible, with the exception of some appropriate angelic music with the scenes involving Silas. The other scenes were polluted with this annoying low base; I thought it was my TV so I switched to another set, same result.
I used the patented family rating system of "how many out of ten," I would give the film a five and that is being generous. It was not the worst film I have ever seen, but if could get the hour and forty nine minutes back id use it to read the book.