The Da Vinci CodeI went by myself to our local theatre last night to see The Da Vinci Code and see for myself if it really lived up to all of its terrible ratings, and… in that respect I was not disappointed. It was pretty bad. I thought the book was very engaging and with all of the twists and turns with anagrams, codes and things to decipher, it kept my attention. Of course, I was offended by the outrageously heretical and blasphemous claims of Jesus having a relationship with Mary Magdalene and fathering her daughter, the historical revisions concerning Constantine and the development of the Biblical canon… but as far as murder mystery books go, I knew it had all the makings of a blockbuster when I read it a few years ago. Click here for my post on the Da Vinci Code’s “perfect storm.”

But the movie was nothing like the book. There was little character development, hardly any intrigue and I thought some pretty poor directing choices - not to mention nothing really spectacular of any of the acting… even our beloved Tom Hanks.

To do the book justice, Ron Howard really needed to make about a 5-hour movie… which of course, you can’t get away with no matter the content. But Ron didn’t really even do all he could have with the 2 hours and 29 minutes I graciously gave him.

And that’s why I was pleasantly pleased when I left the theatre. I came away from reading the book thinking… this could do some damage to some people’s faith because of it’s claim to fact and truth. I came away from the movie thinking… this isn’t going to do much damage to Christianity because it is so obviously FICTION, and not really good fiction at that. In fact, the opportunities the producers have to really inflict damage on Christianity really fall miserably short. So short, that I think they look pretty foolish. They even took the obvious pot-shots at the Catholic polity in the Vatican and didn’t create anywhere near the controversy that the book did.

All that to say… as fan of good films, I was sorely disappointed. But as a lover of God and truth, I was elated. Yes, this film will raise questions in many people… But if someone’s faith is weak enough to be swayed by this poor piece of art, their faith was on thin ice to begin with. This poor excuse for a blockbuster film was a snoozer. And the only damage it did to me was steal $8.50 from my wallet I could have used at Starbucks this week.