Holds one's interest, but disappointing

Rating: 5/10 (26 May 2006)

I was extremely excited to see this movie. I mean, how can you go wrong with Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, and Ian McKellen? Unfortunately, there are a lot of flaws with this movie that made it disappointing, if not below average.
First of all, it is a movie trying to be a book. What I mean by that is that it is easier to follow complexity in written form than in movie form. I was able to follow it, but there are so many twists and turns that each puzzle solved seems to become "just another one". I mean, with so many clues, they start getting old very fast. You start to say "just figure it out already!" Just when you think the puzzle is about to be solved, it's not. And even after all of this, the ending is very predictable (I did not read the book). Some positive aspects are the fact that there is a lot of intensity, stunning visuals, and the violence is well done.
As for the performances, Tom Hanks does not deliver a powerful performance. However, I do not believe it to be his fault. His character is written so poorly that the character has no depth, very cardboard. He is a very boring character who just figures things out, and occasionally feels claustrophobic. Ian McKellen delivers a very good performance, but there is too much of his character. He should be the cool small character that shows up for a little while, steals a couple scenes, and the story moves on. Silas is a great character, but Paul Bettany is shaky. His accent falters a few times, and he displays no acting range in the role. A better actor could have made the part brilliant (imagine Ralph Fiennes in the part). Alfred Molina does a good job, but his character seems completely unnecessary.
With that said, most of the problems with this movie come from the writing. When you make a movie from a book, you have to make the dialogue more powerful and entertaining. This movie had horrendous dialogue, and even great actors like Tom Hanks struggled with it. With better writing, this movie could have been very good. Also, I think a few more of the clues could have been cut out, those were a bit much. It is worth seeing, but fails to live up to expectations.