Movie Review: The Davinci Code

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little. But only a little.

Dan Brown's book interesting if you've never studied any of the topics it presents: the Illuminati, the Council of Nicea, the Grail legends. If you have, then it's just another suspense novel - one of hundreds in print right now. My personal opinion is that it isn't written that well, but I do concede that it's written in a way to be gripping - it captivates you, which means it entertains you, and ultimately that's the goal of any writer. So bravo.

But the movie takes everything that was good about Dan Brown's book, from an entertainment perspective, and throws it away in favor of trying to explain as much of the history and speculation as possible. All of the drama, the suspense, that he managed to impart in his storytelling is gone in Ron Howard's directorial translation. It's wordy, overly wordy for a movie; you find yourself bored at parts, your brain locking up and waiting for the next scene.

There are "shock" moments, those points in a movie designed to jolt you out of your seat - and they work, marvelously. There are just too few of them, and they are spaced too far apart. My observation of the audience was that these moments served more to wake people up than actually surprise them.

Like it or hate it, the Davinci Code as a book has become an icon of the times.

The Davinci Code as a movie? Forgettable, easily so.

The Trickster gives it a sad 2-1/2 stars out of 5.