Well done, but sometimes too close to the book.

Rating: 7/10 (15 November 2006)

I think, one of the main reasons why many people (and critics) did not like the movie is, that it is too faithful to the book: If you read a book, you made you own "mind-movie" with your own perfect actors, places and scenes of it and you have all time in the world to read it. This are only a few of the reasons why the "book is always better than the movie". For a movie, you have a given running-time and it is almost impossible to put all the thinks of a book into a movie and to fit everyones imagination who have read the book. So the most movie adaptations of a book will be shortened in story and characters and sometimes parts of the book must be changed to fit the strengths and possibilities of a movie. The makers of "The Da Vinci Code" tried it the other way round, put a little bit too much of the book into the movie and tried to be too close to the book. They missed sometimes to retell the story with the possibilities that a movie can give; even if this means to cut out some parts of the story or to change parts of it. The storyline is often too fast (even the more than 20 minutes longer Director's Cut) so it can be confusing for someone who did not read the book to follow the plot (yes, i have read the book first). But this film is, in my humble opinion, far better than most critics said. The action is good, the flow of the story is straight, it contains a lot of riddles. It is like a modern "Indiana Jones"-story! I think, the best idea is to read the book first, and than watching the movie. Don't miss it, it is really worth to see!