I finished “The DaVinci Code” yesterday.
When it comes to reading, I don’t have a lot of time except on the work commute. Driving makes it hard to read. Granted… unedited versions of books on tape can help.
So, I liked the book. Lots of nifty symbolism that the average much of it (mind, you not all of it) true.
I enjoyed the book, but the writing style became predictable. I began making fun of the way that Brown wrote the book. The plot and characters weren’t predictable. The story writing. That was predictable.
About halfway thru the book, I started narrating the “next few chapters” to shimmeringjemmy. She said I got his style down pat.
The ending felt very rushed. But I will not spoil it.
I will say that I perfectly cast one role. The police chief I had figured out from chapter 2. It was perfect casting in my mind because I found out later, the same actor had been chosen by Ron Howard for the film. I think most of the rest of the film casting sounds wrong. But I’ll have to see it.
So, yes… I read a book.
In the words of Mal Reynolds, “Try not to faint.”
I agree that Jean Reno was the only strong casting maneuvre for DVC movie. Ian McKellan was also pretty good now that I think of it.
Overall though, the movie is horribly, painfully, even laughably bad in parts. I mean really, really bad. And I wanted to like it. Tom Hanks has never been so bad, and Audrey Tautou (whom I love) is damn near unwatchable. The dialogue is horrible, and the pacing is all wrong. Ron Howard should be booted from the directors guild for that monstrosity. I had to go home and watch another movie just to get the horrible taste out of my mouth.
If you read any of his other books, you’ll find it’s just the same story template for all of them. Granted, they would all make great action movies (Deception Point would probably be the best in my opinion), but it’s always the same characters, with the same twists, and the same goofy romance scenes.
I didn’t read the book yet, but I watched the movie. It was pretty good. But the idea that DaVinci had a big secret (Mary) conceiled in the last supper painting is retarded. Besides the fact that the person seated next to Jesus doesn’t even look like a woman! How the fuck would DaVinci know anyways. Was he alive when Jesus was around? Did he hang with him? Did he hang with anyone who personally was at the last supper? The last supper was most likely a bunch of people huddled around a fire in the sticks, eating bread and drinking wine. I thought the idea that Jesus had a blood line interesting, and that Mary could be the arch interesting. Alittle too far fetched for me to put faith into. The ending was rushed in the movie as well.