Surprisingly OK

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2006)

I had heard a lot of bad things about The DaVinci Code before seeing the movie, so did not have high expectations - thus I was pleasantly surprised.
I was a big fan of the book and was pleased to see that this adaptation had stuck fairly faithfully to it (and not gone the way of, for example, LOTR by inserting random stuff into the story). The locations and cinematography were also pleasingly excellent and (although some may disagree) I was a fan of the way the "recalling memories/past events" sequences were portrayed and liked the way some of the more wild elements of Christian-bashing from the book were tempered with reasoned, rational explanations and pointed criticms of the church and its history.
The film was entertaining and well executed - that is until the final section, where some truly shockingly cheesy dialogue was delivered that had the audience I was literally in roaring with laughter on several occasions that were meant to be profoundly serious. I also found Silas' mannerisms and facial expressions to be often be bordering on comical rather than intense.
The only other gripe is that there were a couple of occasions were the storyline lost continuity as I think prior knowledge of the book was assumed.
I went in with the expectation that the whole film would be as bad as the last 30-odd minutes, but a good start and middle was cancelled out by a silly and annoying end leaving a distinctly average experience all round.