Really Bad

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2006)

The DaVinci Code, the bestseller that sold as much as possible. This movie works...as a comedy. (Almost) everything is wrong on this, with the exception of Ian McKellen and some of the supporting cast. Come on, the book was a fun, exciting, light read, with a good sense of pace and a lot of interesting puzzles to solve. Not perfection or anything, but nice.
The movie just sucks. The screenplay has no sense of pace and it fails to keep you interested or making you feel anything by the characters. It just provokes a total detachment , and you can't avoid to feel all the story is ridiculous. The dialogs are clichéd and even if I didn't read the book (I didn't remember it very well, anyway) I would have been able to guess what was gonna happen next. All the flashbacks are useless and badly written, the emotional scenes lack any sort of meaning and all in all, this movie can't even entertain decently.
The direction is really, really awful. Ron Howard uses all the clichéd shots on the most clichéd order. He seems to think he's doing a brilliant job, with all the flashbacks done in a progressive way, so very kitsch, melodramatic and funny (that was not the objective). He fails to make this movie consistent or interesting, he isn't even OK.
The acting was the best thing about the movie, even if not too good. Tom Hanks is automatic and severely underused, you'd never say this is the same guy that delivered such an amazing performance in Forrest Gump and The Terminal. The same can be said for Audrey Tautou who was so amazing in Amélie. Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina and Jean Reno are underused and can't even develop their characters. Ian McKellen is the standout. He uses such a funny irony, witticism and cynicism in this character that he just becomes a joy to watch and the only thing worthy on this.
The music is very annoying, It's always trying to make scenes exciting, but it doesn't. It just manages to sound overplayed and too loud. The editing is terrible; the movie lacks a decent pace and the scenes come and go in a meaningless, boring order and the transitions are amateur. The cinematography is sappy, with the color used in an obvious way. It's meant to be very touching and beautiful, but it isn't. Overall, a movie that should be avoided by everyone. Recommend this to your worst enemies. I pity them.