SummaryBased on Dan Brown's popular and controversial novel, The Da Vinci Code begins with a spectacular murder in the Louvre Museum. All clues point to a covert religious organization that will stop at nothing to protect a secret that threatens to overturn 2,000 years of accepted dogma. (Sony)
SummaryBased on Dan Brown's popular and controversial novel, The Da Vinci Code begins with a spectacular murder in the Louvre Museum. All clues point to a covert religious organization that will stop at nothing to protect a secret that threatens to overturn 2,000 years of accepted dogma. (Sony)
Ron Howard's splendid The Da Vinci Code is the Holy Grail of summer blockbusters: a crackling, fast-moving thriller that's every bit as brainy and irresistible as Dan Brown's controversial bestseller.
I really enjoyed this movie! Had a ton of plot twists and turns. Most people will probably base this movie off of what their beliefs are rather than as it is…. A movie. All this is is some factual info twisted to the plot of the story. There a many people that need to not take this movie so personal. After all it is just a movie.
Entertaining movie with interesting plot twists. The historical facts discussed throughout the movie; though partially true, are quite thought provoking, which in return adds a richness to the story and captivates the audience.
The screenplay is at the start far from lucid in setting forth characters and relationships and intents. And after the film has been barreling along for two hours of its 148-minute journey, it seems to have lost the ability to finish. Three or four times in the last half-hour, I thought the film was over, only to be jarred by more of it.
There are reversals of expectation, miraculous escapes from certain doom -- all the things that make thrillers thrilling. But The Da Vinci Code isn't thrilling.
The Catholic Church has nothing to fear from this film. It is not just tripe. It is self-evident, spirit-lowering tripe that could not conceivably cause a single member of the flock to turn aside from the faith.
I expected little and got more! Da vinci code is an interesting if dilute mystery/thriller with a fantastic cast delivering superb performances... The production here is exceptional... It is the story which suffers the most from a few pacing/screenplay issues as a result of attempting too much in the movie format than the idea can allow for good storytelling AND thrilling tension. Good for a lazy afternoon viewing!
Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code is the film equivalent of the annoying kid that read a book and came to the conclusion that the Bible is all nonsense. From beginning to end, the story line pokes all sorts of holes and comes to conclusions that could best be described as conspiracy theories, but then again, conspiracy theories often contain less mental gymnastics. I get that this is based on a novel that I have no desire to read, but regardless, it does not stop the film from being tedious, overlong, and self-important. That said, it does have an interesting and mysterious premise that Howard captures quite well as Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou go around the globe searching for the "Holy Grail".
With far too much exposition for one man to handle, The Da Vinci Code's biggest sin is not going against Church doctrine. Though I may be Christian, I am not Catholic. Thus, the church's beliefs are not my own. Instead, the film's biggest sin is undeniably the sheer amount of exposition. Often told through flashback, the film tries to explain everything, but manages to explain absolutely nothing. it is incredible the number of questions I was left with. If Sophie (Tautou) is the last living descendant of Jesus Christ, would her brother not have also been a descendant of Christ? If so, why suggest the staging of the car accident and the cover-up over her? Why not just keep the family alive? Maybe I missed something, but Sophie being the last descendant of Christ feels far too fortunate to narratively make any sense. Also, why Robert Langdon (Hanks)? I get why Sophie's "grandfather" wanted his help, but I do not understand why the Church opted to frame Langdon for murders all over the place. He just studied religious symbols, who cares about him? Figured they would kill two birds with one stone or something?
I guess my questions drive home this point: the writing is terrible. Christopher Nolan would come away from this astonished that somebody included this much exposition. The problems with the writing often can be found in the dialogue, which is incredibly clunky and far too on-the-nose. However, the problems can also be found in the story. I get that the thriller elements are there to make things interesting. While they succeed, they are all so cliche. With a story about revealing cover-ups about Jesus Christ, the film managed to pull out every contrivance to be found in the thriller genre and include it in a cliched two and a half hour film, right down to the conclusion. Though well executed and oddly profound, the ending and Langdon's realization as to where the Mary Magdalene is, could not have been more cliche.
Essentially, the film relies of convenience at every turn. The film has a moment equivalent of Pawn Stars in this moment when Langdon just happens to know an expert on Priory of Scion, Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen). More conveniently, Leigh also has a private plane to help Robert and Sophie escape from the police. Also, at the end, right before Leigh kills them both, boom in come the cops. How convenient. There are far more than I can think of, but I would be remiss without mentioning the worst. Police captain Fache (Jean Reno) is intent on catching Langdon because his Bishop told him that he is a murderer with a purely evil heart. Without any evidence or scene connecting things, Fache has seemingly learned the truth: the Bishop lied. What or who exactly clued this man into this fact? Was it divine intervention? Oh wait Jesus was not divine according to this film, so maybe not really any kind of miracle.
When it comes to The Da Vinci Code, there are many problems. The plot is outlandish and outright dumb. Though the scene with Langdon finding the "Holy Grail" is great, the rest is hogwash. People who believe in Bigfoot would laugh off many of the conclusions in this film. The way it tries to tie in Da Vinci as a method to make itself seem smarter is laughable at best. What, pray tell, does his art have to do with any of this nonsense? The film also tosses in thinkers and other historical scholars along the way as further evidence that Dan Brown apparently read a book and went to history class like the rest of us. Though its historical mentions can be interesting and informative, the conclusions it comes to are more than eyebrow raising. Even worse with these conclusions is that the film force feeds them to you and keeps shoveling in food. A few conclusions would have been enough, but instead, The Da Vinci Code is like a grandmother that assumes you are never full. Instead, you must keep eating long sections of wordy dialogue with nonsense about the paintings of Da Vinci, the lies told by the Church, and the truth behind the Crusades.
Boring. I'm required to write a much long review just to qualify as a metacritic review. But for this laborious snoozefest, one word would really suffice: boring. Tom Hanks: boring. Gandalf: boring. French people: boring. See something else.