Ron Howard took the book seriously - more power to him

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2006)

I'm assuming the reader of this review has read the book so a synopsis of the plot and a list of the main characters are not necessary.
The big question prior to the release of this movie was how would Ron Howard tackle the job? Especially since he had a guaranteed box-office success no matter what he did, considering the success of the book and the controversy surrounding it.
Ron Howard could have made a bland action flick that avoided the controversial religious claims, or he could have made a romantic comedy with a stupid French policeman, or he could have cut the number of locations and codes by 50%, or he could have done all sorts of things.
In fact, Ron Howard took the book seriously, and the movie, although not following the book slavishly, does include most of the controversial claims from the book. I think he did the right thing and that the movie has a more memorable impact as a result.
Just about everyone has noted that the movie is rather long (2 1/2 hours) and contains a lot of dialog. But this is a direct consequence of taking the book seriously.
The movie is well-made, the actors (especially Ian McKellen) all do a good job, the action scenes are exciting, the locations are beautifully photographed, and you leave the cinema feeling that you got your money's worth. This is especially true if you disliked the book because of the religious claims and went to see the movie to get your feeling of outrage about these claims confirmed.
Anyway, I liked the movie. I was even pleased to see that Ron Howard corrected one of the two errors that Dan Brown made regarding the architecture of the Louvre.
Rennie Petersen