O, draconian drivel,
O, lame script!
The Da Vinci Code novel is an exciting mystery-thriller fiction with a clever alternative view to the Holy Grail legend. Much of its assumptions and extrapolations are referenced to real historical sources, which makes quite a convincing argument about the true nature of the Grail and its significance to its progenitor – Jesus Christ. Despite its blatant attempts to please the crowd with thrilling cliffhangers at nearly every chapter end (cliché but still very fun), the book manages to challenge your perception of Christianity, its origins, and especially its now-dated yet still in practice, deliberate marginalisation of women. The book has been immensely popular, with 60.5 million books sold as of May 2006 (source: Wikipedia), and has drawn controversy and criticisms from historians and religious groups. Similar themes have been explored before in movies such as Excalibur, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and most recently National Treasure.
If you read and enjoyed the book, then this movie is not meant for you.
With foreknowledge of the riddles and conspiracies from the book, inevitably the film’s weaknesses in craftsmanship and performances become more apparent. My ultimate gripe is with the pacing and editing. One of the best parts of the book is when our heroes, “symbologist” professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tatou) are cracking their brains trying to solve the titular “Da Vinci Code” while playing cat-and-mouse with the French police, all within the confines of the enormous yet claustrophobic Louvre Museum. For some reason, they felt compelled to rush through this portion so that we get more of the meandering parts, which include the unnecessary backstory of killer monk henchman Silas (Paul Bettany). Many of the expositions are long, badly written, sloppily edited, and painfully verbalized, very much like a B-grade fare. This is in no way reflecting on the book’s writing quality, which is wittier and never takes itself too seriously, which also makes me wonder why they don’t just follow the already-good-enough screenplay-like book word-for-word. The filmmakers were clever to employ some Academy Award-winning types to wrestle with the script, but even with the much-appreciated presence of Ian “Magneto” McKellen (as Sir Leigh Teabing), Alfred “Doc Ock” Molina (as Bishop Aringarosa) and the Professional himself Jean Reno (as Captain Fache) couldn’t save the bad dialogue with their godliness.
(SPOILER ALERT!) They also deliberately changed the Vatican and Opus Dei into all-out murderous villains, rendering the whole pacifistic stance by the Priory of Sion moot while the story becomes less grounded in reality and far sillier. I rolled my eyes when Aringarosa and the Vatican officials revealed themselves as a secret order tasked to exterminating the bloodline of Christ (this is not in the book!), and when the Priory of Sion makes an appearance in the end, en masse, (also not in the book!) like it's some sort of a secret underground religious militia just itching to give the literal smackdown on the Catholic Church, possibly with fancy gold-plated medieval weapons while citing bombastic quotes from the Bible. (END SPOILER)
For the uninitiated though, the central premise of the movie might still be strong enough to bowl you over, and possibly make its shortcomings more tolerable. Also, I have to admit that I enjoyed watching live-action version of the characters traipsing through the real-life locations, and appreciating the unconventional beauty of Audrey Tatou.
“Average” for Code virgins, “Bad” for everybody else. - BMF |
