The Da Vinci Code movie review

3 out of 5 stars.

Kinda disappointing if you ask me, and nowhere near as good as the book. From the start, you know many things will be cut off when Sophie Neveu (Andrey Tatou) comes running to Robert Langdon (Tom hanks) and tells him 'hey, it's the finobacci numbers'. Erm...that's it? That's all you can tell me? I remember they actually took quite long to solve it in the book. That said, the solving of 3 anagrams are also no fun at all. While reading the book, once you knew it was an anagram, you will want to solve it yourself, and that's where the fun is. The answer is slowly revealed to you; in the movie, however, they are revealed revealed in a flash and dull manner. The action is also quite boring: Langdon and Neveu run away from police. Langdon and Neveu find a hiding place. Police finds Langdon and Neveu. Langdon and Neveu run away from police again. You get the idea.

Of course, all the hype of the movie lies in the religious controversy, and even I myself had to admit it will be hard to separate fact from fiction the moment Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen) lets out all his theories with such seriousness. The main issue seems to centre on the divinity of Jesus, (that he was a 'great prophet, great teacher...but mortal nonetheless', that 'he turned from human to divine overnight') although if my memory serves me well (I read the book like 2 years ago) the main issue of the book was not really this, but about the Church's supression of the sacred feminine. Nevertheless, I was also surprised that in Langdon was given a subtle Christian voice, as he counters (very subtly) against Teabing on various issues. Again, I do not remember Langdon given even little bit of Christian voice in the book, eg. 'the Priory of Sion myth' - did he even say 'myth' in the book, or had I missed it completely? Or even that the divinity of Christ was already established prior to the First Council of Nicaea. The accusations, however, if you ask me, are not as strong as they were in the book.

Those were still believable. But towards the end of the movie (yawn), it got ridiculous when Langdon tells Sophie that 'you are the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ.' It was simply unbelievable. All in all, I believe one will probably enjoy the show better if he has not read the book. If not, the movie is just a regurgitation of everything predictable.

Will I watch this movie again? No. The hype is over.