In fact, it was already in pre-production before Da Vinci came out on DVD.
I am not a book reader, so I was really unsure whether it would carry on from the previous events, or be a totally new adventure.
It ended up being the latter, and the story managed to be a bit over the top, even by Dan Brown's standards. That does not mean that I ended up not liking it.
When re-visiting this, I definitely did not enjoy it as much. But I still found it to be thrilling enough to just about give it a pass rating.
From pretty much the start, the over exposition is there at its most obvious. As well as being a sucker for a religious based story, the pacing and tension kept me engrossed. Then for the rest film, my attention never really moved up or down. It just stayed at a satisfactory level right up to end credits.
There were a few improvements from the first one. They continue to not hold back on the violence, and this time, and there were some gross-out moments that I completely forgot about the first time.
With the film having more science involved, I was certainly excited to see where they would go with this. While there were moments of interesting dialogue scenes of religion crossing over with science. It was not as much as I expected.
The performances were not strongest part, nor the weakest. Tom Hanks for me went through the motions and gave us a perfectly fine performance that kept the film moving along.
Ayelet Zurer was a complete waste of time. It may sound harsh, but she just seemed to be filler. She was totally forgettable and performed it as if it could have been done by anyone. Even her character felt like fodder. So in the end, the existence of her character was just there for Hank's character to give some exposition and explain to us what is going on.
Ewan McGregor was certainly giving it his all. But his questionable Irish accent did not help to elevate his performance. But I will give him credit for his effort. The rest of the minor roles was nothing spectacular, despite some names such as Stellan Skarsgard, Pierfrancesco Favino and Arman Mueller-Stahl being involved.
The negatives are hard to talk about in much detail. Every part of the film could have been bettered, but none of it was terrible. I think the main problem was the writing. If they could get rid of the over-use of exposition, we could have some more interesting dialogue about religion and science mixing together, which became essential part of the story. Better casting would definitely have made the film move along more and become a much more memorable thrill ride.
So in the end, this film seems to have landed in a void that I don't have to often put films in. It was thrilling enough for me to give it a pass rating. But it is not strong enough for me to recommend it that much. I think the best place to watch it as at home when its on TV. Yes, the story is ridiculous and convenience of it all was possibly too Hollywood. But there are still good solid moments of exciting action set-pieces, really nice imagery of the location, a romping score, one moment that made me laugh out loud and I was never bored.
However, It's too long, the casting is poor and the potential never gets fulfilled. Not a good as The Da Vinci Code, but a satisfying sequel to the series.
Rating: 7/10
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