What a waste of good source material.

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2014)

Okay, for the record, I have read the book and I really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it. Even thou some of the reasons this movie doesn't work is because they changed things from the book for no reason, I would like to make clear that mostly my opinion on the movie would be similar even if I had not read the book. I will nevertheless point out some things that were done better in the book. If you have a problem with that, well, boohoo. My review.
First off, the characters. They had no character. In the book, they are more fleshed out and three dimensional. I hear you say "But the book is a sequel to Angels and Demons and they made a movie adaptation of that only later, so of course the characters are more familiar when you have read two books about them". But, I have not read Angels and Demons, and I still think the character of Robert Langdon is way more believable in the book on its own. There is a great scene in the beginning of the book where Robert looks himself in the mirror and just thinks about stuff. Here we learn how he is smart and hard-working, but still has a bit of a low self-esteem. In the movie? No such scene. No any scenes where we learn about him. All we know about Robert is that he is a professor of symbols, has a fear of tight spaces and has a striking resemblance to Tom Hanks. Sophie is a bit more developed, but the performance makes it kinda worthless (I'll talk about the acting later. I know. I can almost feel your excitement). The character of Sauniere is in the books flashbacks portrayed as a loving and caring guardian with some deep secrets. In the films flashbacks, all we is him yelling at Sophia like a madman. That is NOT so Sauniere.
Let's talk about the cast. Cause it's amazing. Tom Hanks as Langdon? A fine choice. Aubrey Tautou as Sophia? Well chosen. Sir Ian McKellen as Teabing? Oh my god, you could not have gotten it more right. Mckellen was basically born to play this character. And he is wonderful. If I can think of anything redeemable about this movie, it's Mckellen. He plays the weird but secretive Teabing excellently, just on that border of okay and over the top were great performances are born. Sadly, Tom Hanks stays away from that border. And not even on the side that would make it entertainingly over the top. Cause he is dull. D-U-L-L. Now don't get me wrong. I LOVE Tom. He is one of the best actors working today, capable of pulling out a variety of characters, and by all means, this should be one of them. Yet it isn't. What went wrong? Well, it could be one of two things. Either Ron Howard can't direct his actors, or Tom is lazy. Now, Howard has squeezed out some great performances before, so unlikely that is the case. All we are left is Tom not taking the time to read the book to build on the character when the script offered him nothing. And that's what he is in this movie. Nothing. He just seems bored in every scene. Like he doesn't want to be there. Same goes for Toutau.
What about the technical aspect? Infernal. The camera apparently can't simply just sit still and film anything patiently. You how to have it be hand-held and shake in every possible scene so you can't figure out what is happening. When it rarely is on a tripod, it hast to slide and spin around like a carousel. And lets throw some super- fast editing there to. Yea, I bet that will be pleasing to the eye.
You might be wondering why I'm still giving it a 5/10. "Why isn't it lower after all the things I bashed the movie about? Is McKellen THAT good?" Well, yea, he is, but also, there were a few short pieces of dialogue which I thought added some personality to the characters (even thou very little) and I did enjoy the scene in the airplane also.
I'm not gonna spoil the ending, I'll just let you know that it is horrible. It goes on too long and makes irrational changes to the book that did not need to happen. The following epilogue however is a pretty nicely executed and even leaves some to the viewers interpretation.
I would like to end this unlawfully long review which I'm writing at 3 in the morning because I have no meaning to my life other than complaining about movies on the internet by saying that the themes of the book were not explored at all in the film. The book deals with the responsibility of knowledge and how what to do with it. In the movie? Nothing.
I had high hopes for this movie. Even thou everybody said it sucked before I saw it, I had faith in the director and the cast. Not anymore.