Bad Novel Awful Film

Rating: 3/10 (19 May 2006)

While it doesn't appear to make sense for somebody who loathed the book to watch the film, I did decide to keep an open mind given the cast. What a mistake! The book's bad enough, not because of its "controversy"; I'm not religious at all, and I actually find the concept the book goes into quite interesting. However the novel, if you can call it that, is such a poorly-written ham-fisted attempt at a trashy pulp fiction mystery with one of the most obvious "twists" in literary history, you'd actually feel sorry for Dan Brown if he wasn't so filthy rich.
The sole reason the book has gained popularity is because it's so easy to read, and the reader can feel intelligent and thus good about themselves because of this. Much like U2 is a band for people who don't really like music, The Da Vinci Code is a book for people who don't really like reading. A bookcase with this novel in is otherwise bare.
So onto the film. I thought maybe they'd be able use one of the book's many weaknesses (its lack of any sort of depth) as a strength if they were adapting it. Not at all, the wooden acting from people who should know better; the style over substance cinematography, the useless flashbacks - it was like an episode of Lost but slightly LESS believable.
No doubt this will sell loads and loads of tickets, because today supposed controversy is much more important than plot, acting and entertainment. For the record, Passion of the Christ was just as bad so I think the Heathens vs. Christians game has ended in a dull goalless draw.