Long-winding

Rating: 4/10 (4 December 2006)

I could start out by stating the obvious here, that the movie wasn't as good as the book. But that would imply that i found the book to be good, which i didn't really. Don't get me wrong, it was OK and i didn't fall asleep reading it nearly as often as i fell asleep watching this movie.
The thing with "The Da Vinci Code" is that the story isn't that interesting to me. Maybe it's because i've never been a religious person, never been in a family that goes regularly to church and all that. But the subject of the virgin Mary and the Holy Grail is just not that mind-boggling to me. For people who have more of a personal relationship with the Christian mythology it must be something else completely. The book was a pretty smart spin on the whole story though, i have to admit that although i'm no fan of Dan Brown's writing style.
This, however, is a review of a movie so let's get down to business. There are three major faults in this movie in my opinion. The one you notice first is Tom Hanks. He's just not good as the Robert Langdon i remembered from the book. Hanks is all wrong and everybody seems to realize it except himself. I admire Tom Hanks for his ability to be at least decent in almost every movie he does, but here it's just wrong. He's not bad, but it would have been so much better with someone else. The second thing is that the whole point of the book, the riddles and mysteries, is almost wasted here. Sure we get some special effects showing us how Langdon sees patterns and deciphers code in his head, but it's never exciting nor intelligent like it was (at least occasionally) in the book. Third and last is the length and pace of the movie. It's far too long-winded with endless scenes and a very slow pace that isn't very inspiring. Since the riddles didn't work very well one could have thought that they would go for the more fast-paced thriller style (which could have worked well with the content in my opinion). Instead it's a slow and methodical iteration of almost every scene in the book. And it's not exciting at all.
It's always hard to film a literary success like "The Da Vinci Code". People have read the book, liked it, and their expectations are astronomical. These expectations are made to disappoint, and i guess most people didn't really like this movie either (even though they might cut it some slack because at least it looks nice). My expectations on the other hand were quite mellow and i was still somewhat disappointed. Sure, Ron Howard is perhaps the most boring director of his generation, and sure Tom Hanks is not someone who lifts a production all by himself. But still, there was enough cinematic style and content in the book to make a very decent movie. But i can't call this anything other than a failure. And not only that, it's a boring and very long-winding failure, which is even worse.
I rate it 4/10.