A thriller with no real thrill

Rating: 3/10 (19 June 2006)

Da Vinci Code:
Bad! From beginning to end this thriller lacked any real thrill. The characters are paper thin leading us to have no real emotional attachment to them, thus not really caring whether they prevail over their adversaries of the cloth or not. The film seems to rest all of its weight on the shoulders of controversy and conspiracy, but neither have the back for it. The theory was definitely intriguing, but not nearly plausible enough to make us believe it for the duration of the film. Certain character relationships weren't clearly defined, they seemed to defy the clutches of the clergy and the French police all too easily; and the self-mutilating, psychopathic, albino 'Angel of Death' wasn't really that scary at all. The ending presented a foreseeable anticlimax to which both actors played with a lack of enthusiasm that was apparent throughout.
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a religious symbology expert, is suspected of the murder of a well know historian murdered in the Louvre. Langdon is innocent but is being set up to take the fall for the murder. A team from the French version of the FBI, led by hard core Captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), are sent to arrest him. But With the help of Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tattoo), who's the granddaughter of the Historian, they escape and set out to discover the true identity of her grandfather's murderer. Amidst the hail of bullets, car chases and double crossers, their investigation leads them into a mystery of a code encrypted by Da Vinci which reveals a Secret Society within Catholicism who have held a two thousand year old secret; that if discovered would bring the world's largest religion and all its followers to their knees. To piece together this intricate puzzle they travel throughout France, and with the help of Sir Leigh Teabing, they escape the French police and a Catholic assassin to flee to London where they not only discover the murderer of Sophie's Grandfather, they break the Da Vinci Code itself.
Overall, very disappointing. The only saving grace was Ian McKellen's portrayal of Sir Leigh Teabing, an ageing English cripple, obsessed with Da Vinci's supposed conspiracy and all of its secret societies and who drinks his earl grey with lemon; of course.
Best scene: When Sir Leigh Teabing passionately divulges his knowledge of Da Vinci's hidden code and the Secrete Society who have maintained its mystery.