nondescript load of trash

Rating: 1/10 (25 May 2006)

I ignored all the critics who put it down when first released and was prepared to accept this film for what it was: a fun, fictional adventure. Unfortunately, I think that the critics were being rather generous when they gave it a light panning.
My first complaint comes from the unbelievable level of predictability about the story. At the time, I had not read the book, but I knew how it was going to end after about 40 minutes (specifically, I knew which character was going to turn out to be of JC's bloodline). I also picked the twist with Ian McKellen's butler/driver. Just to name a few.
To add to the boredom, the film wasted a lot of time explaining the history behind the grail and explaining who all the various groups were. While this could have been done in an intriguing way, Howard failed miserably. It seemed very confused and ultimately has little impact in the context of the story. The threads simply didn't tie in at the end of the film.
While the film had a broad target audience, it seemed to me to be rather childish. The action and the plot development was simplistic and often silly; seemingly appealing to the lowest common denominator. The fact that this junk was so popular is a sad reflection on our general taste in book/film.
But overall, the MAJOR PROBLEM with this film was that the performances and film generally were completely and utterly humdrum. With the exception of Ian McKellen, none of the cast injected any life into this drab piece of cinema (including Tom Hanks). I blame the film makers directly and I think this is why it has attracted so much criticism.
Even mediocre mainstream films like Flightplan will end up sucking you in for a while. But contrast, I was very indifferent about the Da Vinci Code throughout the first viewing. I didn't find the characters or plot especially engaging and I really didn't care whether I saw the end of the film or not. Kind of film you would flick over after five minutes if you caught it on cable one night. I was disappointed and expected a lot more.