The Da Vince Code

[selene_13]

I saw The Da Vinci Code today. It was okay, but not too great. It can't keep up with the book, simply because the book is kept interesting by adding a lot of theory and information that a movie cannot carry (you can't have Hanks go on about some ancient symbol and its history for three minutes at end and keep the movie going, while you can easily fill three book pages as long as its interesting).

The actors were good. As I thought, Hanks was fine in his role (as he usually is), and he's sexied up some (as far as it is possible), but he's still not Langdon as I imagined him. McKellen steals the show, as I was also expecting. I saw him as Teabing even as I read the book. Tatou looks good (those beautiful big eyes) but has little substance, just as the character in the book, but then Brown writes Mary Sues and isn't that great with characterisation anyway, so there wasn't much the movie could do about this. I enjoy the books because of a fast-paced mystery wrapped in speculative theory and history, and though the movie tries to convey this, it doesn't quite work. Because much of the theory and history is left aside and we're left with the visual, that which made the book fast-paced is absent from the movie.

Cinematographically, there was a lot of close-up filming, and the action was a tad too chaotic to my taste, trying to spice up a story that actually doesn't have that much action (it seemed like they were copying The Bourne Identity in style). There were moments in the movie that were actually boring, and I was reminded of how frustrating it is when these characters who are suposedly brilliant take over half an hour/20 book pages to wonder which "rosy flesh with seeds" is applicable to Isaac Newton. Also, I keep getting annoyed at this "grand conspiracy" of bored old men who try to spice up their life by forming secret societies, speaking in codes and riddles, and performing sacred rituals, wrapping boring little lives in mystery and self-importance. The church/Opus Dei and the Templars felt like rivalling fraternities.

But I love that there's an action movie out there in which "to the library!" is actually the battlecry.

And concerning all this fuss about the movie from the church... it's a book of fiction. It's not supposed to be taken as any sort of truth, though if it makes you mull some things over (esp. concerning woman's role in religion/history), then that's a good thing. Free will and all that. Leave the finger-pointing to God if he feels like bothering.

To an atheist as myself it's even more frustrating. Let's argue about which man-made book of fiction has more bearing on historical facts. Whatever, they're both mythology. I just like a good story.

To sum up my ramblings, Browns book is a page-turner, good brainless holiday fiction, not great writing but smoothly done, and the movie is an average mystery flick, not quite to the same standard of fun, but okay for a viewing. I'd go see Angels and Demons.