Could have been worse

Rating: 7/10 (22 May 2006)

It's pretty hard to express my opinion of this movie in words, but I'll give it my best shot.
I believe that as a movie, it was good. Tom Hanks delivered a great performance (as usual), Ian McKellen was great, and the rest of the cast were good as well. The directing, by Ron Howard, was great, too. So what's the problem with this movie, then? The problem is, it's based on the Da Vinci Code. And so, the movie inherits all the weaknesses of the book (except for Dan Brown's writing). It inherits the b.s. (no better word to describe it), it inherits the poor attempts at cliffhangers every second just to keep the reader (or viewer, in this case) in suspense, and it inherits the weak ending. It hurts the movie.
Still, it wasn't a bad movie. It wasn't a great one, either. However, I suppose I expected it to be a lot worse than it is, so I ended up enjoying it, flaws and all.
If you liked the book, you'll like the movie. If you didn't like the book, odds are you won't like the movie either (it follows the book very closely). If you hadn't read the book yet, give this movie a shot. You might end up liking it, after all.