Move Review - The Da Vinci Code

Let me start off this review by stating that I knew nothing about The Da Vinci Code before I went to see the movie. I have not read the book, I have not seen or heard any interviews with the author, and I have not done any research on my own. I wanted to go into the movie with a blank slate and no expectations. I simply wanted to watch this movie as I do any other movie: to be entertained for a couple of hours.

That being said, I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code. However, I did feel that the movie was too long and there were parts of the movie that were too slow and boring. The Da Vinci Code should not have been a 2 ½ hour movie. It would have been a much better movie at about 2 hours or even 105 minutes.

I liked how the movie kind of drops you into the middle of a story where some guy is running away from a psycho albino monk and starts throwing terms and phrases at you that you don’t know like the “Priory” and fancy names for word and number puzzles. At first I was frustrated by this and wished the movie would let me ease into this Da Vinci Code world, but as it went on I found that I ended up liking that technique. It made me really pay attention from the get go so that I could try and figure out the things that were not making sense at first.

The puzzle solving parts of the movie was what I really enjoyed. I liked how they found a clue which led them somewhere else to another thing to try and figure out what the next clue was and so on. I did not like the two leads, however. Tom Hanks and the leading lady had no chemistry whatsoever. Their scenes together lacked any kind of electricity or spark. And maybe it was just the theatre I was in but c’mon people “SPEAK UP”! I could hardly hear what they were saying a lot of the time as Hanks and the woman were so soft spoken.

One of my favorite characters in the movie was some dude who was the manager of a place that had these high tech lock boxes. He was great in the scenes where he helps Hanks & the girl get away from the cops but then turns on them.

And of course Gandalf himself, Ian McKellen, steals the show. Once he came on the scene he injected much needed life into the movie. A lot of his role had to do with exposition-type dialogue explaining the theories behind the Da Vinci Code, but he gave what could have been dull scenes a sense of excitement and intensity. A great job by a great actor in a limited but important role.

Some folks are put off by the subject matter of The Da Vinci Code as they consider it blasphemy to speak of Jesus Christ in a manner other than how the Holy Bible does. However, I took it as it was written-purely fictional based on some theories that have some factual basis but no proof. In my opinion if you go into The Da Vinci Code with this attitude then you will enjoy the movie a whole lot more.

The Da Vinci Code was a good movie, not a great movie. Since it was too long, draggy in places, and marred by sub-par performances in the lead roles The Da Vinci Code receives only