And I thought the book was disappointing!

Rating: 3/10 (21 May 2006)

And I thought the book was disappointing! Well I've now got a newfound appreciation for it despite its horrific writing style--all it took was seeing the movie!
Let me preface the remainder of this review by noting that I do not abide by Catholicism and was not offended by the story's subject matter--if anything, I was disappointed that the "secret" was essentially a puff of hot air and, in the real world, would never muster enough attention to threaten the Catholic church.
For the "biggest movie of the summer" this has got to be one of the worst. I read the book about three days before the film's release and, admittedly, was quite disappointed with it. The film however, makes the book look like a Pulitzer Prize winner.
Tom Hanks was an awful choice. His makeup was in poor taste and his wardrobe lacked the intellectual feel Langdon *should* give off. His on-screen chemistry with Audrey Tautou just wasn't there. Most of their scenes--and hence the bulk of the film--felt awkwardly acted. The production value also seemed oddly low for a book boasting over 40 million copies sold; It's as if the producers felt the second-rate book deserved a second-rate screen adaptation or they had simply spent their budget hiring Ron Howard and Tom Hanks.
Let's face it: Screen writers add and remove elements when adapting a screenplay from a novel. In this case it is painfully obvious that their choices were not entirely prudent. The most obvious case was the initial scene in the Louvre which was insultingly short and suspense-free. The scene at Rosslyn was equally strange and poorly acted/directed--the dialogue was embarrassingly awkward.
Wait for the DVD and avoid the long lines and protesters who are unable to distinguish between entertainment and a threat to reality!