Missed Opportunity

Rating: 4/10 (4 June 2006)

After being underwhelmed by the book I had my doubts whether I should see the movie or not, but I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt and seeing the line-up of the actors I hoped that Ron Howard would make the most of it.
But, to be honest and in my opinion, after all the hype that preceded both the book and the movie I found The DaVinci Code to be a huge disappointment.
Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon performed incredibly flat and one-dimensional; and he looks like Steven Seagal and I can only hope Tom didn't try to emulate Steven's acting abilities. Audrey Tautou looks lovely, but she played her role as Sophie Neveu without any emotion whatsoever and her grandfather (or at least who she thought was her grandfather) was murdered. Jean Reno was horribly painful miscast as Bezu Fache.
The only two that made the movie a little bearable were Paul Bettany as Silas, since he was allowed to show a range of emotions, although still I had the impression they were downplayed by the director and/or editor, and Ian McKellen who stole the movie as Leigh Teabing in every scene he was in showcasing his class and talent.
Considering they shot a great part of the movie in Louvre, they could have done so much more with it; for all I know, they could have filmed this entirely on a sound-stage. The other locations were pretty bland as well and much more dramatic effect could have been achieved with more daring camera work. The movie could also have used a little more humor; I think I smiled about two times, while I believe there was more room for a few quips.
And the movie was way too long with 2.5 hours. I realize that making it shorter it would mean that there would be less room for flashbacks telling the back-story of some of the events, but leaving out all this detail could have been beneficial for the story arc. Also, every lead Robert and Sophie follow up is explained to death, so it shows that this is an American movie made primarily for an American audience (no offense, though). I saw this movie in its second week, and halfway during the movie people left, the friend I went to see it with fell asleep for about half an hour and after waking up he felt as if he didn't miss anything.
Perhaps another director and a different cast would have made a difference, then again, the book was pretty bland as well, so perhaps not turning this book into a movie would have been the best choice. For all the people who loved the book let me point you to Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, written 15 years before Dan Brown's movie script, but so much better on all levels.
Overall, let me advise anyone who is in doubt to go see it to wait till the movie is releases on DVD and spend the ticket money on another film; I'm sure you can think of a few, because I can.