"The Da Vinci Code" Reviews

Well, like I mentioned before, the protests won't hurt this movie any. But, from what I've read over the past couple days, critics could deliver the harshest blow to this film.

There are four types of people when it comes to this movie: 1) Those who won't see it, no matter what, 2) Those who will see it, no matter what, 3) Those tempted to see it because of all the fuss by protesters, and 4) The average moviegoer, neutral on the film's "morality" and neutral on the fuss being made.

People in group one won't see the film. They're irrelevant to the film's success. If anything, they'll push people in group three to see the movie. People in group two will flock to the theaters. Doesn't matter if the majority of critics feel it's the words movie ever made, they'll be the first ones in line on Friday. People in group three will probably go, but may not be as quick to jump out and see the flick as those in group two. The ones in group four will probably be the only ones affected by the grades that critics give the film. They may be somewhat interested because of who's starring in the film and who's directing it, but if they see in their local paper that it received only 1.5 or 2 out of 4 stars, then, they may choose to see something different and wait for "The Da Vinci Code" to come out on video.

Thus far, the reviews for "The Da Vinci Code" have been anything but spectacular. So far, the overall consensus has been that the film is decent, but overlong, with too much dialogue that drags on, and that it isn't nearly as good as the book. There's been one critic thus far whose stated that the film is superior to the novel.

Isn't that the case most times? Movies lack the details that books give and they limit our imagination. Perhaps what's placed on screen is drastically different from how we visualized it to be while reading the book. It's hard to compare books and movies, because they're such different mediums of entertainment. However, it's very difficult not to compare the two mediums if one has already read the book. It's nearly impossible to view the movie and think to oneself during the course of the film, "Wait, didn't they skip over that paragraph on page 62?"

I'm almost glad that I didn't read the book, because now I won't be as prone to disappointment after viewing the film. It does look very interesting. I like the cast and the director. I'm also curious as to what the fuss is about. So, the critics aren't going to sway me away from viewing the picture. I plan on hopefully seeing it this weekend and will give my grade afterwards.