Da Vinci Code Movies
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Back To Main Menu. When Tom Hanks' 'Da Vinci Code' symbologist Robert Langdon awakens in the first scene of 'Inferno,' he is in a hospital bed, bleeding from the head and with no memory of how he got there. He is, in short, thoroughly confused. Moviegoers should be prepared to be confused right along with him. Part of that is by design, as director Ron Howard - working from a script by David Koepp, in turn based on the Dan Brown novel - admirably attempts to put his audience in Langdon's loafers. It is a worthwhile gambit, but it is one that in this case pays only partial dividends. Along the way, 'Inferno' has its surprises.
It has its adventure. It has its moments of suspense. But it also exposes what is perhaps the biggest flaw of the whole 'Da Vinci Code' series. That is: It tries desperately to be a smart series, like some sort of 'National Treasure' for post-grads. More often than not, though, it comes dangerously close to outsmarting itself.
If you're at all familiar with the series, either on the page or on the screen, you can probably guess how 'Inferno' plays out. As in 2006's 'The Da Vinci Code' and the 2009 sequel 'Angels & Demons,' Hanks' academic detective is pressed into service to decode a series of clues that send him dashing through beautiful, time-worn European cities in the hopes of beating the clock and unraveling a particularly nefarious plot.
In 'Inferno,' the action starts in Florence, Italy, followed by stopovers in Venice and Istanbul. Howard's cameras make the most of the European locales, smartly if not flashily, as he takes his audiences on whirlwind tours of various drop-dead gorgeous museums. Meanwhile, Hanks' Langdon - with Felicity Jones (of 'The Theory of Everything') tagging along as the obligatory female co-lead - breathlessly follows a series Dante-inspired clues in the hopes of preventing the release of a modern-day plague. Hot on their tail are any number of armed pursuers. Unfortunately, Langdon can't remember which are the good guys and which are the bad guys, which always tends to complicate things. As it turns out, the chief baddie this time isn't a member of the Catholic Church or the Illuminati, as in Langdon's previous adventures. Instead, the film's villain - who feels plucked right out of a James Bond movie - is a misguided but determined billionaire (Ben Foster, of 'The Mechanic') who is obsessed with human overpopulation.
His plan: to save the species by killing off half of it. Why he sets up an elaborate trail to accomplish that rather than just loosing the plague and being done with it is anyone's guess. Billionaire maniacs, it seems, don't have much common sense. Or maybe they just have a universal flair for the cinematic. As Howard teases out the string on his story, he has more than a few satisfying twists in store for his audience. The on-screen charm of poor Tom Hanks, who just keeps getting conked on the head, also goes a long way.
The same goes for supporting player Irrfan Kahn, who gets all of the best lines as a deliciously wicked man of mystery (and a character who could be at the center of his own movie franchise). But if Howard really wanted to put us in Langdon's shoes, and if he really wanted us to feel as if we were part of the caper, he would have taken steps to let us play along. That would require providing at least a clue or two that realistically could be puzzled out by someone without advanced degrees in both Medieval art and European literature. Instead, Howard's film, particularly early on, ends up being too fast, too dense and too smart for its own good.
Keeping moviegoers guessing is one thing. Keeping them confused is quite another.
At least 'Inferno' boasts an admirable sense of forward momentum. The action begins almost the moment Hanks' Langdon awakens, bleeding and discombobulated in that Florence hospital room. From there, Howard keeps the pedal pressed firmly to the metal almost non-stop through to the drawn-out third act. If only he took the time to glance in his rearview mirror, he might have noticed that he's left much of his audience behind. INFERNO 2 stars, out of 5 Snapshot: The Da Vinci Code' gets another sequel, once more starring Tom Hanks as symbologist/detective Robert Langdon, who awakens in a hospital room only to find himself at the center of a manhunt for reasons he can't remember.
Davinci Code Movies
Cast: Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Irrfan Khan, Ana Ularu. Director: Ron Howard. Rating: PG-13, for sequences of action and violence, disturbing images, some language, thematic elements and brief sensuality. Running time: 2 hours 1 minute.