MOVIE REVIEW: Inferno

From Dan Brown and screenwriter David Koepp comes the most disappointing adaptation of The Robert Langdon series of films yet, thanks to Ron Howard in the Directors chair.

The basic story here is that Robert Langdon, from The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, is in Italy although he has no idea why he’s there and why someone is trying to kill him. He wakes in a hospital bed in Florence and can’t remember a thing. How did he get there? Who asked him for help? All he knows is that the doctor who is caring for him is helping him run from the assassins that are out to do him in. It all ties to an enigmatic billionaire who believes that there are too many people on the planet, and who has created a virus to wipe out most of us. Hurray!

Having read most of the Dan Brown books, books that make you want to explore more of the mysteries and art of our wonderful world. The good thing about them is that they don’t talk down to you while explaining the complex societies and agencies that control our lives from behind the wizards curtain. The problem is that although the films have been financially successful they haven’t been anywhere close to goodness that is contained in the books.

In this film, which is the weakest of the three, I just got irritated from the start to the finish, I’ve been thinking about this film since watching it and it’s not getting better, it reminds me of what George Carlin said. “I don’t have pet hatreds, I have psychotic events.”“

The film talks down to you in nearly every scene, all they are short of doing is asking if we know where the bathroom is in that patronizing voice. I’ll give you an example, at one point the World Health Org. takes Robert from Venice to Istanbul, two seconds later we see a jet flying through the air. So would you assume that this jet is their jet? Of course you would make that jump, you’ve got great intelligence and taste, as you are here on this site. But Ron Howard and the production team on the film think you haven’t as they have the writing up on-screen showing that this jet is the World Health Org. jet. Thanks for clearing that up, I hate having to make simple assumptions. The whole film for me when on like this, with an over simplified script and a plot that makes you cheer on the bad guys.

My own feelings of the overpopulation of this planet were close to the villain here, and maybe we can start with those involved in how this film turned out.

Tom Hanks is great as always, always. Felicity Jones plays the Doctor who stays by Langdon’s side as he tries to work out the clues left for him to help find the virus. The best character in the film is part villain but also so underused I had to shove my hoodie into my mouth to scream when he’s taken out like a chump. This is played by Irrfan Khan, and you just want more and more of him through the whole film.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that despite this wonderfully written and funny review Inferno is going to make a fortune in the cinema’s on release. There is no accounting for taste.

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