Before I start, I’ll say this: the book is huge. An accurate film representation would be unbearably long, as seems to be the norm with book to film transpositions these days. The huge wads of detailed history and symbology Brown has included are vital for a true appreciation of the scope of the whole Holy Grail mythology. In my opinion, this is one story that just has to be read to be enjoyed. It just doesn’t work well on film. The film only scrapes the surface of what is a deeply involving story and legendary mythology. As a result, I fear viewers who have not read the book would be confused or even bored by this film. In essence, it feels like the film exists solely to capitalise on the popular DaVinci Code franchise. Hey, there’s even a video game. The story gains little in the translation but a few visuals for those of us who haven’t been to France, or can’t be bothered googling for The Last Supper.

Warning! Spoilers follow!

I admit my one mistake was expecting the film to be as engaging and thought provoking as the book, so naturally I was disappointed. Bits were just missing and had changed for no discernable reason. The most offensive culprit was replacing a library with a mobile phone in what seems suspiciously like an attempt to modernise the story. All it achieves however is to cheapen the scene and detract from realism. Maybe the crew just couldn’t be bothered setting up in a Library to shoot the scene. A whole cryptex was left out with no mention of Jacques Saunière’s fondness for double entendres. It is also plainly obvious that to avoid more outcry, the condemnation of the Catholic Church has been deliberately diluted. Big surprise there. I still can’t believe people are so willing to be offended that they forget one very important attribute of The DaVinci Code: it is FICTION.

The book has a way of totally immersing the reader, making them feel like they’re the one discovering the clues, like they’re the one on the adventure. Solving the riddles for myself was fun, dammit! Even if some of them were so obvious as to make our protagonists seem rather slow when I solved them pages before they did. In the film, the puzzle deliberations were often omitted from the dialog, with viewers left with the characters simply stating the solutions after looking thoughtful for a few seconds. This gives the impression that these puzzles were easy to solve which is in total contrast to the book. It also helps to distance viewers from the film. The ending was cut short and altered for no reason other than convenience of filming it would seem. It really is like the producers got to that scene, looked at their watches and went “Shit, we’re running out of time! Let’s just wrap it up in a way that makes no sense!”

Character development? What character development? The film followed these people around who appeared to know each other and have some common goal, but we don’t really get around to caring about them. Sophie’s childhood flashbacks were but tiny glimpses, so we don’t get to know her history. Ian McKellen was superb as always, and his portrayal of Teabing almost flawless. His betrayal was convincing and he executed Teabing’s hilariously dry wit with ease. Audrey Tautou is perfectly cast, but it’s a shame she wasn’t given an opportunity to fully explore Sophie’s character. Tom Hanks as Langdon was predictable casting and his portrayal somewhat unremarkable. Jean Reno wasn’t nearly as mean as the Fache I had imagined. And what happened to Langdon and Sophie at the end? Where’s the epilogue where they hook up? Perhaps we’ll just have to wait for the sequel “The DaVinci Honeymoon.”

Other Positives? Visuals, visuals and more visuals. It was excellent seeing the actual architecture and locations depicted in all their visually spectacular glory. The scope and grandeur of the buildings and scenery was difficult to extract from Brown’s descriptions. Maybe I should have read the illustrated edition.

In summary, the experience left me feeling glad I’m not reading the Harry Potter books until after I see the movies. God forbid I should become one of those book reading moviegoers that pick holes in movies translated from print ;-)