Dull, Dull Da Vinci

No other movie this year gathered the amount of hype and controversy as much as The Da Vinci Code. Now, if only the actual movie had just half of that excitement it created in real life, The Da Vinci Code might have been a good movie.

A mysterious murder in the Louvre brings Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and French police officer Sophie Neveau (Audrey Tautou) into the middle of a 2,000 year old conspiracy that involves the Holy Grail and the Catholic Church. Finding they are being framed for the murder, Langdon and Neveau must run from the French police led by Captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno). As if that is not dire enough, they also have to evade the murderous Silas (Paul Bettany), an Opus Dei monk in search of the Grail. Aided by Grail expert Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen), Langdon and Neveau try to uncover the mystery behind the Holy Grail.

For a thriller, The Da Vinci Code severely lacks suspense. There is no sense of urgency in Langdon and Neveau’s quest to solve the numerous puzzles. The book has the luxury of space in building the suspense. The movie, unfortunately, has not. The book could dedicate ample number of pages to describe a predicament, explain its imminent threat, and go over the interesting way Langdon and Neveau solve it. For obvious time constraints, the movie has to blaze through the puzzles, barely explaining anything along the way, and completely robbing the movie of suspense.

With the suspense diminished, all that is left of the story are the weak plot and even weaker characters. But these flaws couldn’t be blamed solely on director Ron Howard and writer Akiva Goldsman. The decision to have the script stick very close to the novel just accentuates the flaws of the novel. Author Dan Brown didn’t exactly create a masterpiece with his novel. The Da Vinci Code is basically a mystery with a ludicrous plot that hinges on a number of coincidences. Brown didn’t even try to inject his characters with personality. All it had going was the controversial conspiracy theory and the intriguing puzzles.

Not given a solid script, the cast’s performance suffers. The always likeable and talented Tom Hanks is shockingly bland. Hanks has a promising start as Langdon delivers an insightful lecture on symbols very early in the movie, but for the rest of the movie his talents are wasted on a dull character. Meanwhile, Audrey Tautou is equally dull as Sophie Neveau. Even worse, Tautou has to deliver overly melodramatic lines with her sometimes indecipherable accent. The bright part of the acting arrives about one hour into the movie, when Ian McKellen’s Teabing shows up. The Shakespearean actor is given the best lines of the movie and delivers them with candor and playful energy that the movie sorely misses.

Visually, The Da Vinci Code is appealing. The photography manages to create a sense of dread and an ominous tone throughout the movie. The gothic churches, castles, museums sure help. But the best treat Ron Howard comes up with is the nifty visualization effects to the lengthy and potentially boring expositions. Howard backdrops Langdon and Teabing’s history lesson on the Crucifixion, the Christian Roman Empire, and the Crusades with a CGI-enhanced representation of the events. The result is a ghostly and magical vision of the past that evokes a sense of wonder.

In the end, no visual treats could inject adrenaline to this dull movie. Had Howard and Goldsman reconsidered their approach of essentially filming everything in the book, The Da Vinci Code could be a taut and suspenseful thriller, instead of this lackluster effort. A tighter script would have been a huge difference. Not that it would matter to its box office performance The hype and controversy already guarantee that viewers would come in droves and probably make The Da Vinci Code the highest grossing movie of the year.

Blast From the Past

With the imminent release of the movie The Da Vinci Code, I think it's the perfect time to resurrect an old post from my quasi-mirror blog, Terra Occulta. In the post, I reviewed The Da Vinci Code, the book. How did I like it? Not very much. A note: Disregard the first paragraph. I couldn't bring myself to write more of the supposed series of posts.

This is going to be the first of many entries that are going to talk about widely popular books/music/movies that I do not think deserve the praise. First up, The Da Vinci Code (I'm going to get a lot of flak on this).

First of all, the reason I don't like The Da Vinci Code has nothing to do with the revelation of the Christ bloodline. That's actually one of the strongest part of the novel, storywise. I'll acknowledge The Da Vinci Code's attraction: Murder mystery, scandalous revelation, plot twists, puzzles, exotic locales, the Catholic Church, Centuries-old conspiracy, murderous Albino henchman. The book seems to have all the ingredients for a thrilling read.

It doesn't.

It's missing two important ingredients of a story: a logical plot and character development. Big claims, I know. I'll defend my point.

The plot exists only to provide Dan Brown a chance to show off how he can make intricate puzzles. Reading the early parts of the novel, you will very likely sense the suspense of Langdon trying to solve the puzzle of Jacques Sauniere's gruesome death. I did. And then Langdon had to solve another puzzle, and another, and another, and... you get my point. It gets repetitive and boring pretty fast. For the plot twist, well... let's just say [Leigh] Teabing is no Keyser Soze (If I spoiled the story for you, don't worry. You're not missing much). You can see the twist a mile away.

What's worst, Langdon, the protagonist, does not experience any character development. He is basically the same before, during, and after the story. The protagonist has learned nothing to resolve his conflicts. That's a no-no, folks. With no character development, the story is pointless. There are no reason the story should be told.

In fact, without these two things, The Da Vinci Code reads like, dare I say it, a mindless summer blockbuster flick. Okay, that maybe a little harsh. The book does have it moments. But for something this hyped, I expected more. The Da Vinci Code is officially overrated.

That being said, I really hope my dissatisfaction with the book doesn't extend to the movie. I really want to enjoy a good thriller set in Europe and its picturesque locales. My problems with The Da Vinci Code seem to come from the truly bland writing. Hopefully, the adaptation to screenplay will solve the issues I had with the book (though with Akiva "Batman & Robin" Goldsman writing, I'm not holding my hopes too high).

The cast looks impressive with Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, two of the most charming actors today, playing Langdon and Neveau. But what got me really excited is the genius casting of three brilliant actors: Paul Bettany as Silas, Alfred Molina as Bishop Aringarosa, and Ian McKellen as Teabing. If the script delivers, this could be a good movie.

Infinite Crisis: A Retrospective

This week marks the publishing of the final issue of Infinite Crisis, a seven issue comic book miniseries published by DC Comics. Crisis is the culmination of a two year long storyline that spanned through nearly all DC comic book titles. It's more than just a book; it's a highly publicized event that got the comic book fandom riled up. It's also, unfortunately, rather frustrating and mind-numbing.

Infinite Crisis is intended as a sequel and a celebration to a hugely popular and influential series published twenty years ago called Crisis on Infinite Earths. Up until the 1980s, DC titles didn't share a single universe. It consisted of several parallel universe, ("earth" is the used term of a parallel universe). Multiple iteration and interpretation of characters existed in the different earths. To avoid confusion, DC editors decided to mainstream their titles. They utilized the twelve issue maxiseries to accomplish this goal. At the end of the series, the different earths and characters are merged into one definitive version. The universe-spanning series was a huge success. That was in 1986.

In 2006, just in time for the twenty year anniversary, Infinite Crisis continues the story of the original Crisis. The preparation and build up for the event was impressive. Various hints and plot points were subtly teased in various titles years before it was announced. The story practically affected every DC title, some more than others. A huge number of titles set up the conflict that were going to be. In addition, there were four concurrently running six-issue miniseries that prelude the main series. All the titles sold very well. Some issues were re-printed due to high demand. With the massive build up, Infinite Crisis managed to match the level of importance the original Crisis had.

Creatively, Infinite Crisis is well made, at least in the beginning. The series is written by Geoff Johns, a fan favorite and best selling writer, and (mostly) drawn by Phil Jimenez, another fan favorite and excellent artist. It started very well, or even fantastically if I might say. The story brings back a plot point from the original Crisis. A group of people that survived the original Crisis have taken the initiative to bring back their earth, one that was destroyed to make way for the current one. However, to bring this about, they may have to destroy this earth in the process. Another major plot running in the story is the philosophical conflict between the three most iconic characters in DC, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. They no longer trust each other, leaving the other heroes in a state of disarray, unable to quell the crisis at hand.

The mechanics of the title are impressive. Each issue packs a considerable amount of story, making it a hectic read, but it illustrates the chaos that is going on in the story. In the action packed story, Johns still manages to write excellent characterization to the cast of thousand. Dozens of memorable moments and lines are scattered throughout the series. In the art department, Jimenez is able to portray the chaos and still make things clear for readers. That's easy to say, but in reality, next to impossible to do. Jimenez did great. The series was building to be a classic.

Unfortunately, Infinite Crisis started to falter halfway through. The first indicator was the art. As a monthly published series, Infinite Crisis packs a higher than average page count and even more details per page compared to a typical monthly comic book. Presumably DC has allocated a lead in time, so that Jimenez would have a leeway in producing the art. It still wasn't enough. Not wanting to delay the title, DC brought in other artists to help Jimenez beat the deadline. Some were good (including the legendary George Perez), some weren't as good, all weren't consistent to Jimenez's style. Reading a story where the illustration suddenly changes from page to page is infuriating. You wouldn't want it on a regular title. You definitely don't want it in something as big as Infinite Crisis. Even worse, the art actually gets worse and worse as it nears the end.

The strong writing soon followed the downward trend. The first few issues are a great read, setting up many conflicts in the story. But the seven issue format proves to be inadequate to accomodate the story. The dense issues don't let the reader to breathe and slow down; the pace is inhuman. With not enough space, the various conflicts resolution are barely adressed. Some are exported to regular titles. Readers that want to see how a conflict ended has to get other books. Some events that were touted as important (they had their own miniseries preluding Infinite Crisis) end up as nothing as a plot device. The conclusion of the series is the greatest sinner of all. All the conflict and drama peaked in issue six with the death of a character. By the time issue seven hits the stands, any sense of urgency and drama is gone making the series ultimately anti-climactic.

The criticisms might sound a little harsh. The series as a whole is still a very good read. But after all the build up for the last two years, I was expecting something more. A classic. The first few issues just worsened that anticipation with its brilliance. When the quality dropped with the last few issues, I can't help but to be disappointed.

Paranoid Android

Radiohead Sets North American Theater Tour

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*sees closest tour stop is all the way in LA*

*checks wallet*

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