Suspenseful and True to the novel

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2006)

As was the case with anticipated films like the Harry Potter series, the books outweigh the film simply because the film makes too many cuts on the plot and character build up. The Da Vinci Code does not suffer from this shortfall, either in book form (which is beyond excellent in my opinion) or as a film, Ron Howard does a fantastic job of creating the right atmosphere that suits the suspenseful plot. To be fair, Dan Browns plot is complicated enough to prevent much cutting, and all for the health of the film too. I was rather expecting to be bored, condsidering I was very familiar with the twists in the plot, but was kept pleasantly rapt by the excellent directing and strength of acting. Tom Hanks is critised, and his performance is nothing on the marvellous Sir Ian McKellen, who steals the screen, but It certainly doesn't detract from the solidarity overall. I was most gratified to find that the final part to the film was in fact clearer than the ending to the novel, which I perceived as a trifle abrupt and ambiguous. Howard clearly had this in mind and does a good job directing it. It was nice to see that the legacy from fantastic book has been continued onto the big screen, I didn't think it a disappointment at all. Well worth viewing IMDBers, if you haven't already!