As a book, awesome....as a movie, average.

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2006)

One of the bestselling books of our time is making the jump from the medium of print to that of film and attacking theaters everywhere. Now The DaVinci Code may not have been the best work of literature to ever grace our bookshelves but it did hold your interest and keep you turning pages. The mystery was stacked on, the puzzles and riddles the main characters were to solve were detailed and intriguing. The story moved along at a nice clip and you did not really want to put the book down once you were into it. Because you were there with the characters, experiencing what they did, you were part of the adventure.
Sadly, in the jump to film the adventure loses out. Running right around two and a half hours in length, the movie seems to lack something. Perhaps it was all the detail in which Brown explained what was happening, perhaps this story was meant to be told and simply not to be seen. As far as visuals go the movie is gorgeous. Filmed in many of the actual locations you get a nice view of the world abroad. The story more or less make a seamless transition to film with many key instances remaining intact, some were cut for time and others i assume were just cut. There are minor changes from the book but none that will take away from the experience. Summer thrill seekers might be disappointed also, as this movie does not have many gun fights or car chases, the action sequences that are presented are sort of mundane and dull and also short lived. Ticketbuyers searching for a thinking movie will also be rather disappointed, because everything in the movie is pretty much spelled out for the average mind to grasp. No making connections and thinking of things on your own, the path is already laid out.
Then we move onto the actors themselves. Most performances were so so at best, with Ian McKellen and Paul Bettany making their characters stand out the most. Tom Hanks does what he can but just seems to lack something this time out. His Robert Langdon, while not terrible was far from terrific. For me it just seemed to much of a forgettable experience, the action was not as proclaimed as i remember in the book, while some of the humor was removed as well. Perhaps Browns other book featuring Robert Langdon, Angels and Demons, would have made a better movie-going experience. It has more action sequences and just as much puzzle and riddle solving. It however, is not surrounded by the controversy that DaVinci Code is, and perhaps that is what Paramount was banking on. In the end, not a terrible movie but not a lasting memorable favorite either.