I am rarely suprised by the movie. After seeing 5 seasons of LOST and tons of shocking twists and endings in movies I thought I can guess every single movie twist. That movie proved me wrong.
Not only that - I was pleasantly suprised by how good it was, 'The Da Vinci Code' was simply horrible - the only good things about it was finale scene, Paul Bettany and wonderful score from Hans Zimmer, the score that was so good the movie didn't deserve it. Here we have his stunning compositions again along with beautiful visual side of the film, I was enchanted by all the monuments and buildings, majority of which, it is in my understanding, was built and created in CGI for the movie, since the Vatican authorities denied director's request for being let into eg. Sistine Chapel. It all looks remarkable, there is only one shot in the film, where the characters enter the Chapel - the CGI was so bad there it hurt my eyes.
Apart form that, I really cannot complain about anything. The biggest mistake of the first movie was that so many great actors didn't get enough screen time. Here we have only 3 well known people - Hanks, McGregor and Skarsgaard. Tom Hanks is really good here, he is somebody the audiance always sympathizes with and he looks like I imagined Robert Langdon (ok, when I was reading the books I imagined him to be hottter, but that's me^^). McGregor is excellent, I like this actor a lot - he never fails.
I was really suprised by twists and turns of the intrigue, the movie was very engaging and the story itself was, despite what many reviewers write, quite logical and made sense in the end. There is also one spectacular scene in the film - the explosion of the bomb, I was simply stunned by how beautiful the scene was - it was almost as good as the final scene of 'The Da Vinci Code' with Hanks kneeling in Luvre, above Holy Grail - but let's face it with wonderful 'Chevaliers de Sangreal' by Hans Zimmer, the piece that is easily in my top 5 movie tracks of all time, nothing could top that scene.
I adored how Howard gently ridiculizes the Church - all he had to do was to show it, really - the bomb is ticking and they worry about formalism, also the splendour and the secrecy - I bet if anyone could go into Vatican library he would find enough dirt on them to bring that entire organisation down.
To sum up - the movie is entertaining, the acting is very good, the music is wonderful - Ron Howard can do miracles when he has a good story to tell.
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