Davinci got $10 of my hard-earned money this weekend.

OK, it was actually McGill’s $10 since I took at Minister of the Day (MoD) shift for him on Friday and he paid me back with a movie Friday night. Davinci raked in almost 225M worldwide in it’s first weekend of release. Not bad for a film that completely bombed in my opinion.

  • The whole film felt a little too self-important. The characters, the code, the setup, the puzzles, the acting, the directing, the betrayal, even the settings. Nothing worked. I tried to care, I really did.
  • You don’t get emotionally connected to the characters. Though I did love the ‘my mom used to do this to help me relax’ flashback sequence. Everyone jumped.
  • They figure out a string of impossible puzzles just a bit too easily. First off, there’s like 1,500 puzzles to follow, all of which have to be solved as an event counts down or police close in. It starts early and repeats itself, over and over again. I’m beginning to question if the book was any good – that’s how bad this film is.
  • Too many man butt shots. 1 is too many, and we’re treated to far more than that.
  • Tom Hanks mullet-hair was the only thing that kept me from faling asleep. I was afraid it would attack me.
  • Everyone delivers lines like they are reading a book. Wait, that makes sense to me now that I think about it.
  • The albino monk was just a tad over the top. Too bad, any film that has an albino murderous monk should rock.
  • Howard pulls a Lucas. That’s right, I just went there. Great material, cool universe, great films in the past – but manages to deliver an average at best opus that still manages to rake in some serious cash.
  • The film is punishingly long. I cared less at minute 146 than I did at any other point in the film’s lifecycle. Actually, that was when the credits started to roll, and for some reason that brought me joy.

Someone there said, “I couldn’t put the book down” which is great, but I can’t put this movie down enough either. Not good.

I think I’m still excited to talk about it in church this weekend, but then I’m past it for sure. I might read Josh McDowell’s new book we gave away this weekend to HSM students, but I’m not nearly as hooked as I anticipated.

JG