The Extended Version Is a Much Better Film: A Religious and Art History Thriller

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2015)

I give the film 10 stars for the Extended Version, 8 stars for the theatrical version. When I saw the Da Vinci Code for the first time in the theater, I thought it was okay, but the whole experience seemed rushed. Much later when I bought the Da Vinci Code on Blu-Ray and saw it in the so-called Extended Version, the film was much more satisfying. The Extended Version is a superior film: more gripping, more suspenseful, and far more compelling. The Da Vinci Code the Extended Version makes better use of Ron Howard's fine directing, and the characters seem more developed. The first time around, everyone was in and out of the Louvre, and running all over Paris, not to mention everywhere else. In the Extended Version, the pacing seems more natural and the events aren't as hurried, allowing the story to "breath".
As has been pointed out by many a-reviewer, the plot is somewhat absurd. However, that's why we see films: to be taken away to another plane which may or may not work completely logically. The trick is whether or not audiences will suspend their disbelief and run with the story for two hours. The plot is essentially about the continuation of a religious "war" of sorts between two covert factions: The Priory of Zion, also known as the Keepers, and Opus Dei, an underground order within the Catholic Church which carries out extremist agendas, even without the knowledge of the Vatican. These factions and their 2000-year-old war have been kept hidden from the public at large. Harvard symbologist and cultural-history scholar Robert Langdon and a police researcher Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) become enmeshed in a diabolic religious plot in which the four top-ranking members of the Priory, called the Senechaux, have been assassinated.
The first scene involves an old man running for his life from a hooded assassin during after-hours at the Louvre Art Museum in Paris, France. The assassin, an albino named Salis (Paul Bettany) fires a fatal shot into Jacques Saunière (Jean-Pierre Marielle). Bleeding and dying, the old man drags himself to his feet with a pen in hand and engages in some kind of markings. The film then cuts to a lecture by Robert Langdon on the nature of symbols in world history. He is then confronted by the French police and asked to come to a murder scene. He was planning to meet the victim, Saunière, but the older man failed to show for their appointment.
He comes to the Louvre to see a horrific site: the body of Saunière splayed out like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man with strange markings on his chest and invisible words on the floor. Unbeknownst to Langdon, the detective-officer in charge of the investigation Besu Fache (Jean Reno) believes Langdon guilty. By chance, Sophie Neveu arrives and through a secret message, informs him he is Fache's no. 1 suspect. The two flee together from the French police and become fugitives from justice. They engage in a two-day adventure in which they attempt to decipher anagrams, find artifacts and artworks, and reveal the meaning of codes all the while eluding the French police. The theme of the so-called "sacred feminine" recurs throughout the film, especially when the fugitives solicit the help of Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen). Teabing is a self-proclaimed solitary scholar and presumably independently wealthy Englishman residing in France whose historical conclusions are rather wide of mainstream academia. At the same time, the albino-assassin is hunting for an artifact called "the keystone". The secret order, Opus Dei, is trying to eradicate the long-held belief in the so-called Holy Grail.
If you like suspense films with some historical and art references added into the mix, the Da Vinci Code is one of the best films of its type. While the author Dan Brown certainly didn't invent the genre of art-history thrillers ("The Flanders Panel" by Arturo Pérez-Reverte was written over 10 years before "The Da Vinci Code"), it has become the most well-known and bestselling examples in its sub-genre. Some of the plot twists and explanations are certainly absurd if you analyze them critically. However, it really is a fun film. The only scene I don't care for is one in which they trick a young man to lend Langdon a cell phone on a bus to find out more about some historical names. In the book, this scene took place in the British Library, a much more interesting and appropriate locale to look up revered figures of the past. Still, a really fun movie that does give me the shivers at the end. I don't know why, but it does.