Would have been surprising, suspenseful, and exciting 20 years ago

Rating: 6/10 (21 May 2006)

I liked The Da Vinci code the first 4 times I saw it...as National Treasure (absurd huge conspiracy idea), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Grail quest), Dogma (last relative of Jesus), and The Bourne Identity (chase through Paris). Without having read the book at all, knowing only that it dealt with a secret code hiding the supposed fact that Jesus married and sired a line of descendants with Mary Magdalene, I approached the movie skeptical of the religious issues that have been much debated. As an ordained minister in a protestant denomination I can tell you that it takes some liberties with conventional theology (assuming facts that aren't facts), but it strives to avoid spitting on faith, more attacking the idea of institutional power, in this case the Roman Catholic Church. I had an idea who was who and what would happen when it started, and I was right on all counts. Every plot turn was as obvious as if it had those convex mirrors hanging from the ceiling at corners in hospitals. There was absolutely no suspense for me. I guessed right on every character too, as to who would turn out to be a villain or a hero. It was just too obvious from the start. I'm frankly surprised Ron Howard did this. Apollo 13 is one of my favorites, and ironically it is much more suspenseful to me after a dozen viewings and being an accurate historical drama than this little work was the first time through without having read the book. Now, it was beautifully filmed, and the flashback/dream sequences were wonderfully done, except for the error of placing 4th century Constantine who ruled from Byzantium in 2nd century Rome - dramatic license, I realize, but distracting to me. About descendants of Jesus - statistically speaking, if He had any, most of us would be related to Him by now. It's been 2000 years. There would have had to have been a concerted effort beginning in the first century to be able to be able to kill them all.