Excellent!

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2006)

I saw the Da Vinci Code last night. The theater was completely sold out. I have to admit that I was a little nervous after reading some of the reviews, but then I remembered the book got pretty much the same reviews and the book was excellent. As soon as the movie starts it brings you in, and makes you forget the people around you. I forgot that it was Tom Hanks; he became Robert Langdon to me. Some of the more controversial theories about The Virgin Mary, and the Grail story being everywhere, (even in the Little Mermaid) were left out. Some of the puzzles were also left out. None of that made a difference. The movie was exactly as I had pictured the book when I read it, and yet it was still surprising and enthralling. I didn't understand how the book could have gotten bad reviews, and I really don't understand them for the movie. It was not boring, or a snooze fest in any way. For the people who are worried the movie was derogatory to the Catholic Church or Opus Dei, I didn't see that at all. The Bishop and Silas were portrayed as fanatics, not as your everyday member. Bazu Fache was supposed to be your average member and he was an upstanding, moral and religious guy. When it came down to it, he wouldn't lie just because the Bishop asked him to, he did the right thing. I think it was at that moment that the fanaticism of Silas and Bishop Aringoza was the most obvious. The media and the Catholic Church obviously want people to believe that this movie is evil. It's really just a good movie, with a lot of interesting theories, some which can be backed up by fact, and some just supposition. I agree with Sir Ian McKellen. If their faith is so strong, why are they so afraid of this movie?