Way overhyped for its own good

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2018)

Boy, talk about a letdown. This film is a poster child for what hype and too much positive publicity can do to a film- The Da Vinci code isn't a bad movie but nor is it the second coming of Christ(no pun intended). When you boil away the hype and hysteria, all that remains is a pedestrian murder mystery that isn't sufficiently challenging or scandalous to raise anyone's hackles. It's preposterous, overlong, and saddled with a sloppy denouement that defines the term "anti-climax." The film's two big "surprises" are telegraphed early, and the ease with which they can be guessed (using the "conservation of characters" process) leeches the movie of a large measure of its suspense. Individual scenes are entertaining in their own right, but the production as a whole is a lumbering mess.