What were they thinking!

Rating: 5/10 (18 May 2006)

Well after all of the hype I don't know what I expected. I know I was disappointed after hearing Tom Hanks was to take the lead, when I read the book I did not picture Robert being anything like Tom. But to be honest, Tom Hanks was the least of the movies problems. I know the story, and I know it is easy to judge a movie as bad after reading the book, so I asked my partner who had not read the book what they thought. She thought it was a let down, not what she expected at all. I asked her if she felt it was suspenseful and she said "no". I am fairly easy to please at the movies, but I was very disappointed in this movie.
There was a good story to work with, the book was very suspenseful, but it was like Ron Howard took all of the suspenseful parts of the book and either discarded or downplayed them. The Monk is no where near as intimidating as he was in the book, he came across as a token 'badguy' but quite impotent in his work. The relationship between Sophie and her grandfather, and the cause of the breakdown in that relationship was almost nonexistent and I felt it was an important part of the story. I think Ron Howard thought we would all want to see Tom Hanks overact his claustrophobia throughout the movie (which had no real bearing on the story) than delve into the childhood of Sophie.
Overall I would say if you haven't read the book see the movie, but if you have read the book stay home and rent 'National Treasure', that was a much better version of the Da Vinci Code.