Inferno Review

Director: Ron Howard
Running time: 121 minutes
certificate: 12A 

The previous movie adaptations of Dan Brown's best selling novels, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons were passable entertainment without being particularly memorable films. However, they were saved by interesting and topical subject matters, particularly The Da Vinci Code. Unfortunately, with a threadbare plot and unexciting action, the latest Robert Langdon thriller is the worst of the trilogy.

The story begins with Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) waking up in a hospital in Florence with bullet wounds to his head, he can't remember what has happened to him or how he ended up in the city. When an assassin tries to kill him he escapes with Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), when they get back to her apartment he finds a device among his belongings that shows a painting based on Dante's Inferno.

From there Langdon has to follow the clues to stop a virus created by bio-engineer Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) from being unleashed on the world to prevent overpopulation.

Much like the books, the plot jumps from one place to the next as the characters explain everything to one another depending on where they are. This doesn't work well in a film where the characters are not overly interesting, and where there is little time to allow the story to breathe. While the topic of overpopulation is a worthy one, in this film it isn't much more than a plot device for the characters to react to.

The action scenes are okay, but because Robert Langdon isn't an action hero there's little excitement involved, there's nothing to really keep you on the edge of your seat. The finale is good but rather uninspiring and predictable. This could be all forgiven if the central mystery is gripping but it isn't, it just becomes boring quite quickly.

The performances don't particularly standout, Tom Hanks is well cast as Robert Langdon but Felicity Jones is a bit wooden as the female companion, the script doesn't much help. It isn't noticeably bad, it's just full of stiff dialogue that doesn't flesh out any of the characters or create any form of tension.

A number of twists and revelations spring up from nowhere, there was one particular twist that I didn't see coming, but it doesn't make up for a rather insipid film and cliched ending, which has been changed from the book rather unnecessarily.

Other positives? As with the previous Dan Brown adaptations, the locations are wonderfully shot and everything is visually rich and aesthetically nice to look at, it's always a pleasure when a film uses real locales. But there's nothing much here that is worth buying a ticket for, unless you're an avid Dan Brown fan, I can't recommend this film.

Wait for a rental.

Verdict: D
2.5/5