Here's the secret to the DaVinci Code... IT SUCKS!

Rating: 1/10 (20 May 2006)

I just came back from seeing the film and I couldn't be more disappointed. I am not some religious addict or a freedom fighter for albinos, nor am I a purist who demands that the movie stay close to the book (which it most certainly does, to an awful degree). The problem with the movie is that Ron Howard was so preoccupied with trying to stay as close to the novel as possible that he forgot to tell his own story. I have enjoyed as many of Howard's films as I have disliked, but I thought he knew what he was doing with this one. It seemed like a the first cut of the film. There was no focus, everything was jumbled together and squeezed into a very long 2 1/2 hours. He should have gone the simple route and focused on the plot, not try to deepen the characters with an excessive use of flashbacks. The story is what people loved about the book, the hunt for clues, not understanding Langdon's claustrophobia or Sophie's personal issues. It's the story that was fascinating and Ron Howard forgot about that. Also, there was no suspense. It was predictable and dull. Not even during the car chases was there ever a moment of pure excitement. Truly the biggest surprise at the end of the DaVinci Code was indeed that it sucks.