Somewhat entertaining, but ultimately messy

Rating: 6/10 (3 December 2016)

Tom Hanks behind Ron Howard's direction has led to some success in the past such as the entertaining, albeit super corny, Apollo 13. Here, Ron Howard has tackled a subject that few other mainstream directors would even think to. But the controversy over the subject matter seems unnecessary as even the characters within the story don't seem to believe the far-fetched and incredibly bogus plot.
To begin, the acting is surprisingly dull. Tom Hanks, a legendary actor, never had "the scene" is this movie, making his performance distractingly off. At times, it looked like he didn't even want to be there, which only attributed to the sleepy tone of the film. Any actor could have portrayed Tom Hanks' character, making his presence feel like a waste of true talent. That being said, Ian McKellen was actually great. His introduction to the story and his deciphering of The Last Supper painting was among the films brightest moments. He brought a much needed pop of character to the story. Still, it was funny to see the lack of emotion within a group of people who were unfolding a secret that would lead to the most important discovery of all time.
Now I do think that the story is completely stupid and rarely makes sense, but the film in it's entirety is admittedly entertaining. I can't say I was ever bored watching The Da Vinci Code as the story moved quickly from puzzle to puzzle and the group made new discoveries. This is where the movie shines and some fun can be had. But when we left our main characters, the story began to drag considerably. The parallel story lines just simply weren't intriguing and while they did provide the conflict and tension, motives were not clear and the sub-characters just weren't interesting.
Watching our three main characters decipher ancient codes and riddles was actually quite interesting. While most of it is totally wack, these scenes did manage to hold my attention, resulting in some fun enigmas and hidden secrets. It's just too bad that the surrounding characters and atmosphere feel so insignificant, which makes the clues uncovered feel unimportant.
The film also went on for way too long. The main story was done at the 2 hour mark, but it felt the need to continue for an extra 20 minutes where nothing was really accomplished. This extra 20 minutes did give us the answer to our main question, but it really felt unnecessary at that point as even our main characters had seemingly gotten over solving the mystery. And at that point, I imagine the audience has as well.
Ron Howard tried so hard to piece together an alternate path in history, one in which we have to suspend our beliefs so high to a point where it feels artificial and clumsily manufactured. While it was entertaining to watch at times, the matter never felt pressing and the tension never felt real. The characters were just as believable as the ludicrous story, but if they had been even half as interesting, it would have been a much more memorable experience.