United States, 2006Cast: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou, Ian McKellen, Paul Bettany
Director: Ron Howard
My Rating: ** / ****
I was one of those guys who happened to think that Da Vinci Code (the book) was highly over-praised. Not over-rated mind you, just over-praised. Everytime people say that "Whoa.. the book was superb!" i was immediately going into disgusted state and tried to shown how much i disliked the book. But again, not entirely disliked but simply because i dont think that the book was priviliged to recieve such praise. Truth be told, i wish to be distinguished from the common-folk by spotting the tiny holes in the book and turned it into a bigger hole yet.
Well, now let's talk about the movie. As a purist, i was usually read the book before i went to the movie which adapt the book in question. And so was the case with DVC (the film). I went to the cinema with full knowledge of how the story would evolve and the secret hidden under its sleeve. You may think that it would made my judgement to the film would be biased. But, again, i'm not the one who paid any mind for being spoiled.
The Da Vinci Code (the film) was meant to be a mystery / thriller. Easily judged by the way they executed the credit title, the way they bought the atmosphere, and the way they put those creepy sounds (which actually at some point really-really annoys me) all around. But as it turned out, too much expositions was spent between the thrills. Well, i know, it was inevitable for such things to happen. Mr. Howard was however, wanted to put as much essence from the book's story into 2:29 hours of movie time. And with many jargons and technical stuffs, it was actually pretty understandable to built the plot in such manner. However, i found that the plot was a little bit overlong. I dont know why. Maybe it was because none of the characters and their chemistry raised my interest beyond those 'controversy' that has been talked about since the book hit the world-wide shelves several years ago.
Even though led by superb actors / actress whose some of which are happen to be one of my favourite, they weren't given enough time to develop their characters from beyond the thin-paper the book gives. I sometimes winced when Sophie (Tatou) and Langdon (Hanks) doing their conversations. Mr Mc.Kellen however, gave a rather enjoyable performance. If i was about to mention my favourite scenes of the movie, i would certainly mentioned the scene where Teabing (McKellen) explains to Sophie about "The Last Supper" as one of those scenes.
But well, my take was, if you haven't read the book, you may enjoy this film (even though i could easily point out several people who hasn't read the book, but found the film was equally boring). If you have, by the way, you may also found the film (as i was) rather boring.
All in all, i would remember this film. Not because the film itself, but the situation that enabled me to watch this film (at theater, by the way, which something i haven't done in quite some-time).