Blu-Ray/Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code (Two-Disc Extended Edition + BD Live)

 

This is the movie adaptation of the wildly popular novel by Dan Brown of the same name. The movie was directed by Ron Howard and starred Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, a professor at Harvard University who is unknowingly the subject of a police investigation into the murder of the curator of the Lurve in Paris. Audrey Tautou plays Sophie Neveu, the granddaughter of the curator who joins Langdon in following clues that point to the Holy Grail.

There are different editions of the movie. I have the extended edition which has a running time of 174 minutes. The additional scenes do not change the movie significantly, just add additional material here and there, and end up being about half an hour longer than the theatrical edition. I do think the additional footage helps make the movie make a bit more sense than the shorter version does, so in that sense, it works. There are a ton of extras on the Blu-Ray set including an interactive picture-in-picture experience that plays the movie with behind-the-scenes material and interviews with cast and crew members as the film plays. There is also a selective scene commentary with Ron Howard that breaks down specific scenes from the movie. There is also a second disc just with special features that include the making-of documentary from the original DVD release, a book-to-screen feature about adapting the book into a movie, a feature called Da Vinci props, that discussed bringing the descriptions of Da Vinci's inventions into the real world, and featurettes on the sets, recreating the artwork, the visual effects, and the music, as well as promotional trailers for other Sony movies. So, a ton of material for those who like the bonus content. The movie looks and sounds great in HD, with a ton of great visuals from around Europe.

Overall, I think the movie was good as the novel. Which is the case many times when a novel is adapted into a movie. Hanks does a great job as Langdon (aside from having a weird haircut), and Jean Reno as the police inspector is great. Audrey Tautou and Ian Mckellan do a good job in their roles but don't think either of them was necessarily the best casting choice for the roles they played. The book and the movie get a lot of flack as being blasphemous, which I think is unfair. Yes, it has a religious element to it, but it is a fictional story that, while it ties some real historical elements in, it does not claim to be 100 percent historically accurate. Because of that, there will always be a segment of people who will never see the movie or read the book. But, if you can accept that it is a fictional thriller/mystery, and is not pretending to be anything more than that, it is an enjoyable movie that is worth seeing.