While India waits to see if it will be allowed to watch 'The DaVinci Code', I went for the flick last week. I didn't think the book was a masterpiece, though it was mighty entertaining, and as a result went into the theatre expecting no more than high quality fast-paced, popcorn entertainment. Not so unreasonable, one might think... but as it happens the pacing is the film's greatest problem.
For those who've read the book, parts of the movie are bewilderingly, ponderously slow. Its almost (gasp) boring. I for one never found myself engaged by the characters or the story, worrying about what might happen next or curious about the next plot denouement. I suspect that this might be the case with many who've already read the book.
Most people who go to watch a film adaptation of a much loved book often do so trying to see how scenes they've imagined while reading the text, have been translated to film. The problem in such a contemporary film is that there isn't much wonder in the sights on screen. While some scenes from the crusades and the templar knights have been shot in a kind of unsaturated sepia, these scenes are too many and too frequent and we lose any sense of wonder pretty quickly.
A big advantage while filming a fantasy like the Lord of Rings trilogy is that no one really has an idea what Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, Mordor or Rivendell look like and when Gandalf and Pippin come riding over the brow of the hill for their first glimpse of the White City, it truly is spellbinding. It also helps that everything in the LOTR films is so much bigger than anyone would have imagined.
While Paul Bettany is good and some scenes of his self-flagellation with the Cilice are truly cringe worthy and Sir Ian McKellen tries his hardest to make this film exciting, they don't altogether succeed.
Ultimately the DaVinci movie is a little too much like the book and adds very little to those who've read the book and pictured scenes in their head. Just like the book, its no masterpiece (and expecting one is folly) and provides a long 140 minutes (seems much longer) of escapist and not extremely entertaining fare.
Worth a watch for the hype and just like hype, a second helping isn't appreciated.
1 comment:
I haven't had the chance to see the movie, and will probably just wait until it hits video. I felt the same way about the book as you did. It was a very interesting book, but too much hype. On the other hand, I just ate up Angels and Demons, which I read first. I think the suspense is much more intense in Angels and Demons-It's a "scarier" book. Da Vinci Code's winning feature was the unconventional view on a subject that many people keep VERY close to heart. But since I had already heard so much hype, and was already familiar with Dan Brown's suspense style, I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.
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