Jun 08, 2006 11:17 AM
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The first three quarters of the film is faithful to the Dan Brownbestseller. Hanks looked uncertain as Langdon. Tautou didn't have thegreen eyes of Agent Neveu but she is still riveting. Her charactermakes you forget she was Amelie in her previous film. Mckellen and Renoare equally and expectedly superb. But the most astonishing revelationin the film is Bettany as Silas. You will not forget those eyes...
The story is a bit confusing for those who did not read the book. Andsome very important details were left out or disappointingly changed atthe last quarter of the film. But all in all, the film delivers andsatisfies. It was also very careful not to delve too much on thereligious aspect of the story; to appease the Opus Dei perhaps?
Whether you're Catholic or not, the film is worth watching. And don't forget all characters in the film are fictitious...
heDa Vinci Code is one of my favorite books, and after learning that TomHanks and Ron Howard were going to make a film version, I thought itwould be a sure-fire winner. I was very wrong.
First of all, this is the first movie where I did not like Tom Hanks.His facial expression, one of perpetually exacerbated befuddlement,never leaves his face. His character had zero personality, down to thestripping of the famous Langdon tweed coat in the book to a boring suitin the film. And his character had zero chemistry with Sofie.
Secondly, the film itself had a constantly dark and mundane theme toit. The book, to me, was an epic adventure. In contrast, the movie hadmore of a feel of John Travolta's 'Battlefield Earth' than it did'Indiana Jones.' While the visuals were at times interesting, overallthe constant spinning and blending images together in an effort toportray Langdon's deciphering of the puzzles, to me, ultimatelydetracted from the film's central characters.
I would not recommend anyone who enjoyed the book as much as I did tosee it on the silver screen. You're better off waiting until it comesout on DVD. Maybe if you've never read the book and don't plan to, itwould be worth watching.
Debuting at the Cannes Film Festival an over hyped The Da Vinci Code byauthor Dan Brown is a dud for fans of the well written novel. The storyis obviously a work of art as a bestseller, the cast are all wellknown, and the director is an Oscar winner. So where was the problem?Well to start out with the cons of this controversial movie is that thedialogue was cheesy which caused me to laugh in a serious movie. Nowthat shouldn’t happen with well rounded cast members that have beennoted for their excellence in other great movies. Another problem withThe Da Vinci Code was that it was too lengthy, sitting through a moviethat is 2 hours and 30 minutes’ long, while the fast paced novel zoomsby in just 500 or so pages.
After reading many of the comments from critics that have waited towatch The Da Vinci Code at the Cannes Film Festival spread likewildfire that critics hated the movie. Though the critics might hatethis movie, this does not stop a large audience of people from comingto watch this expected to be blockbuster hit to end the Box Officedrought.
The Da Vinci Code is basically a mystery which starts out with amysterious murder that gathers in specific people to solve a crime. Thecharacters later on discover that there is something much bigger thanthey anticipated to even be going up against.
The pro’s of this story are easy to say from my point of view is thatthe appearance of this movie in the commercial would lure in a hugeaudience to go watch this movie. When I saw the commercial it seemedkind of like an action thriller more than a drama and mystery kind ofmovie. Another good thing about The Da Vinci Code is that it managed todrag in so many well named actors that considered the parts for thisfilm and also a well director.
To sum this review up I would still recommend this movie for moviegoers that have read the novel and want to see their adaptation come tolife. Also because this novel was so well made by Dan Brown by watchingthe movie you should later on read the novel to experience the best ofThe Da Vinci Code.
But the question for The Da Vinci Code is could it be able to hang onnext week with the much anticipated Marvel superhero adaptation X-Men3: the Last Stand?
