Decent adventure - but not outstanding

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2018)

Based on the popular book by Dan Brown, this film tells the story a race against time to solve a centuries old riddle crossing through religion, literature, folklore and culture. Tom Hanks plays Robert Langdon, a professor/teacher/symbolist/literature expert/puzzle specialist who gets mixed up with a plot that put him both in danger, and in the driving seat to reveal one of religions biggest cover ups. It all starts in France, when a Louvre curator is killed. He is found in mysterious circumstances with mysterious codes on and about him. Langdon, along with Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) attempt to unravel the clues to the murder, and the clues to the cover up - this takes them through various locations all to do with Leonardo Da Vinci, as he was one of the perpetrators of the cover up. The cover up suggests that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene had a child and there is in fact an active blood-line of decedents still alive. Throw in the mix various corrupt law enforcement agencies, various religious sects such as Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion, various independent parties too - and you have a adrenaline fuelled mystery that spans the time of man and religion too.
Directed by Ron Howard this film takes it's source material from the Dan Brown book of the same name. I have read the book but I wanted to review the film without the book in mind - so rather complain about differences or changes - I'm mainly going to be focussing on the delivery of the film rather than the contents of the book.
Howard's choice of locations make the film visually pleasing, some lovely architecture has been really looked at from interesting perspectives. On first inspection his choice of casting too seems to have been a good choice; there are times where the lines are a little wooden, leaving me unable to connect or empathise for the characters - but for the most part performances are decent. Hanks and Tautou do well to carry the forward, while other appearances from Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany and Albert Molina (amongst others) all come off believable. Effects have been done tastefully for the most part, with emphasis on clues to help the audience along - sometimes practically spelling out the issue for audience members unable to understand. There's a decent pace for the most part but there are times where action drags a little - presumably to allow the audience to catch up.
All in all this is a decent detective slash chase slash journey of a film. It's like an Indiana Jones style film with less action and more book smart. I'd give this a 7 out of 10. It wasn't awful but it's not totally my cup of tea. The hardcore book fans probably won't like some things about it, but as a standalone film it's got enough to keep viewers entertained.