Not worth its weight in controversy

Rating: 4/10 (14 August 2006)

It was better than the critics said, but not as good as the hype. I agree with the critics when they said it wasn't a good role for Tom Hanks (it seemed forced), but disagreed when they said it was plodding, boring or worse. It was two-and-a-half hours long, but the suspenseful pace was quick, even if the dialog was heavy (lots of talking - it was a book at one point after all). It was interesting to see how the story involves real events, places and things with fiction and conspiracy. That was really cool. A lot of it didn't make sense, but that's what you get when you try to make things exciting (why was this random guy interested in the cryptex?).
The Christians made a huge fuss over the movie, and I feel only one organization was justified in it - Opus Dei. They officially didn't make a huge deal out of it, they pretty much just opened up to explain what they're about,a nd re-released their founder's book, The Way. There really isn't a need for the Church to expend so much energy fighting Dan Brown when they should be focusing on teaching scriptures and sound doctrine. The secular world has been doing a stellar job discounting all of Dan Brown's claims - just watch The History Channel to see.
Overall, this movie is a solid rental, but that's about it.