Better than the reviewers led to believe.

Rating: 8/10 (13 July 2007)

I am not at all a fan of Tom Hanks or Opie. I always skip their movies, I never liked either. I skipped this in the theater because of these two and the dreadful reviews.
However, I rented the DVD and I was more than surprised at this movie. Having read the book, there is no way the film could ever manage to achieve the delicious and unbreakable grasp on the reader from start to finish.
If you have neither read the book nor seen the movie, by all means read the book first. Sure the book and movie are complete works of fiction. But the book is infinitely more exciting and satisfying. Like almost all of Dan Browns books, this isn't classical literature. But it is by no means dumb. The book dangles such enormous, tantalizing hooks that you should set aside an entire rainy day to read it, because it is much too engrossing to read in more than one sitting. It is rare that a book completely obliterates any sense of disbelief, and this does it. Make no doubt, its literate fluff, but it is still fluff. Instead of cotton candy, it is a delicious Godiva truffle. Not a classic book, but a great book, and one hell of a breathless page turner that makes just enough sense to completely suck you in for the day and even make you ask what if?
The movie is similar. While some of the book was changed for cinema conventions, the movie rolls along at a frantic pace, and is still engrossing. There are more spine tingling gee whiz what if moments than I would have ever expected. Opie did a good job mixing these mystery moments with car chases to keep up the action and tension and suspense. Not much is truly overdone, and not much is undercooked. He unfolds the story at a deliberate pace that doesn't ever get boring or slow. There is less character development, but hey, this is a big blockbuster Hollywood movie. The character development is more than one would normally see from a summer tent-pole, and the characters are fleshed out enough to root for them. Opie cuts the chase scenes before they get too long and stop serving the story, they are never outrageous and showy but actually suspenseful. And he cuts the mysticism and revelations before they are given the clobber treatment where things are spelled out to you. The movie, even though it is a popcorn movie, is a smart one, and expects more from the average viewer than the vast majority of Hollywood garbage. It is by no means perfect, it doesn't really deserve my 8 for quality, but it does deserve the 8 for entertainment value. I would like to think of myself as a film snob, but I greatly appreciate any movie that causes me to buy in to the story and characters, and get lost in the film and its twists and turns and suspense and gee-whiz moments. The DaVinci Code managed to do that for me. It was entertaining without being (for the most part) condescending. And I don't understand the b.s. about Tom Hanks hair nor his casting. Im not a fan of his, but he performed aptly and believably. Still, he cannot hold a candle to French legend Jean Reno, nor can he keep up with Audrey Tatou. Thank God the filmmakers did not add in any sense of sexual tension or romance between Hanks and Tatou. There is just not time in a 24 hour span of saving the world for a budding romance or even a quickie.
Not the best movie ever made, but it manages the rare feat of being compulsively watchable multiple times on DVD, something I couldn't say for many Best Picture winners. In my book its along the line of a Fifth Element or a Underworld. Its actually worth buying on DVD and watching over and over.