Negative reviews have more to do with fear of religious right

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2006)

Negative reviews of this film have more to do with critics fear of the religious right than any minor flaws this movie has. Is 'Da Vinci Code' a great film? Probably not, but it's a darn good film and Ron Howard stays very close to the source materials in the major points and while it relies on a great deal of actual history for elements of its back story it never claims to be anything more than a work of fiction. All performances are solid, the pacing allows for character and story development and the action pieces are exciting with out stretching believability too far. If Catholics and other Christians could accept 'The Passion' as authentic despite its reliance on works outside the Gospels and its overwhelming antisemitism then they have nothing to complain about in a movie that never attacks Jesus. As far as Albino's complaints, they do get used a lot as villains in cinema and 'Powder' hardly makes up for a stereotype based only on their skin.