I just finished The DaVinci Code today. I really, really liked it and can see why it’s a best-seller. Everyone loves a conspiracy, and for me, a fictional conspiracy of that magnitude really captured my interest. But, I can also see why it got people all stirred up. Some of the stuff in there is pretty mind-blowing if you believe it, and when people do just that, that’s a problem. People should just pick it up and read it and take it for what it is–a very well-done fiction story. Mac wrote the same point a while back.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but when people complained about Tom Hanks playing the part of Robert Langdon, I now see why. He just doesn’t look the part. Especially with that nasty hair. But, now that I’ve read* the book, I want to see the movie and how badly it turned out, since apparetly, it got horrible reviews.

UPDATE: Ok, so I just saw the movie. It was…ok. I liked it. Just like any movie made from a book, things were cut out or compressed to save time, but it stayed pretty close to the book for the most part. Sophie was just how I pictured her, and Tom Hanks was better than I thought he would be for the part. Besides the mullet.

I liked that they got Sir Ian McKellan to play the character Sir Leigh Teabing. Nice.

Back when the movie first came out, I remember Lem telling me that his friends had seen it, and there was audible groaning at a certain part near the end, and I now know what part that was!

It wasn’t so much that this revelation, as well as other parts in the movie that explained the “great conspiracy” was badly acted–it was just that the movie didn’t have the advantage of the the long, descriptive historical arguments that the book described in great detail to prepare you for it. Everything was much less-convincing as Dan Brown made it in the book. Maybe that’s a good thing.

As always, the movie was good–the book was better.

*Technically, I listened to it. Unabridged though.