Oh this movie is better than The DaVinci Code. That’s certain. Though, saying a movie is better than The DaVinci Code is like saying it’s slightly less painful to take a red hot poker to the eye than it is to get your fingernails ripped out. It’s still an unpleasant experience, only slightly less so. Tom Hanks (hair severely toned down from the last go round) stars as Robert Langdon who we all know traipsed about Europe looking for symbols last time. At least this is what the film assumes you know, because there is absolutely no exposition. Except…he didn’t. I know that there is always going to be a slight change when you’re making books into movies, but to make this film a sequel is absurd to me. You don’t even need it to set up a hatred for Langdon within the Catholic church. You could…I don’t know…do what they did in the book and make it so the main animosity is because the church feels like his next book would be incendary towards the Vatican. But, I digress. This time Langdon is needed because 4 Cardinals (who are the top favorites to become the next Pope) have gone missing before the Conclave. They are all going to get murdered unless Langdon can help decipher the clues to find the Illuminati’s Church Of Illumination. As a book to movie adaptation it’s sound. The scenes look like how I imagined they would when I read the book and that’s really all that anyone can ask for. But, I did ask for more. The only way I can describe it is that it was overdirected. I am not the biggest fan of Ron Howard as a director (though I was pulling for the wonderful Frost/Nixon to win the best picture statuette at last year’s Oscars) and this movie made me remember why. I don’t think he is the right guy to direct something like this. The action scenes were too staged, too movement based. It was hard to tell what exactly what was going on because the camera was moving too quickly. I think this was in order to get the film down to a pg-13 rating when honestly it should have been rated R if it would have allowed the camera to linger. The times I was most engaged was when Ewan mcgreggor was in the frame. He was acting in a totally different movie and his speech to the College of Cardinals was stirring, the character’s journey complete and understood in its motivations. But if you’re just seeing the movie for his performance I am saying wait to dvd. It’s not worth it in the long haul.

Oh this movie is better than The DaVinci Code. That’s certain. Though, saying a movie is better than The DaVinci Code is like saying it’s slightly less painful to take a red hot poker to the eye than it is to get your fingernails ripped out. It’s still an unpleasant experience, only slightly less so. Tom Hanks (hair severely toned down from the last go round) stars as Robert Langdon who we all know traipsed about Europe looking for symbols last time. At least this is what the film assumes you know, because there is absolutely no exposition. Except…he didn’t. I know that there is always going to be a slight change when you’re making books into movies, but to make this film a sequel is absurd to me. You don’t even need it to set up a hatred for Langdon within the Catholic church. You could…I don’t know…do what they did in the book and make it so the main animosity is because the church feels like his next book would be incendary towards the Vatican. But, I digress. This time Langdon is needed because 4 Cardinals (who are the top favorites to become the next Pope) have gone missing before the Conclave. They are all going to get murdered unless Langdon can help decipher the clues to find the Illuminati’s Church Of Illumination. As a book to movie adaptation it’s sound. The scenes look like how I imagined they would when I read the book and that’s really all that anyone can ask for. But, I did ask for more. The only way I can describe it is that it was overdirected. I am not the biggest fan of Ron Howard as a director (though I was pulling for the wonderful Frost/Nixon to win the best picture statuette at last year’s Oscars) and this movie made me remember why. I don’t think he is the right guy to direct something like this. The action scenes were too staged, too movement based. It was hard to tell what exactly what was going on because the camera was moving too quickly. I think this was in order to get the film down to a pg-13 rating when honestly it should have been rated R if it would have allowed the camera to linger. The times I was most engaged was when Ewan mcgreggor was in the frame. He was acting in a totally different movie and his speech to the College of Cardinals was stirring, the character’s journey complete and understood in its motivations. But if you’re just seeing the movie for his performance I am saying wait to dvd. It’s not worth it in the long haul.