Checked out Inferno, the latest Tom Hanks film based on the Dan Brown novels about Robert Langdon: professional symbologist (previous movies: Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons). This film is alright. It’s ok. It is very competently shot and has a real competence in its suspense and music. It’s competently acted and directed. It’s competent. But it’s also the same thing for two hours – never better or never worse… just kind of a well made lump of coal sitting there hoping to some day become a diamond, but not putting any effort into it. If this movie was not as professionally made, it’d be terrible. But its level of competence keeps it just treading enough water to not drown.
In other words, yeah, it’s a movie that was made by professionals who seem to have no joy or particular interest in making a third Robert Langdon movie. Tom Hanks is fine in it. Felicity Jones is fine. The shot composition is fine. The editing is trying to make you feel confused and disoriented intentionally (because Tom Hanks has a head wound and has lost his memory). Nothing wrong with any of this – it has a kind of thrilling vibe that goes absolutely nowhere. I mean, that’s better than not having a vibe at all, but its also just by-the-book film making from a very good director (Ron Howard).
I’m trying to think of more ways to say this is just kind of a well-made inert movie. I guess I’ve gotten that point across.
The movie is about a MacGuffin… someone has created a plague that will wipe out half the population because, if they don’t, then we’ll all be dead in a hundred years. Or maybe there’s an atomic bomb. Or maybe it’s about killer alligators. Who cares. It’s just an excuse for Tom Hanks to run around a European city, finding clues in famous art, and then reaching rapid conclusions based on very few clues the movie shows us. Oh, and oddly overly cryptic puzzles that I’m not entirely sure I know why they existed in the first place. I guess that’s par for the course for this series.
So, there ya go. It’s not a bad movie… it’s a perfectly decent movie that should be a good or even a great movie. In many ways it’s just about as good as the previous movies but those movies also seemed to be trying just a little bit harder. Not that they were great films but I think they were overall more enjoyable. So, yeah, if you are a completionist for this series of movies or just think Tom Hanks is a goddamn national treasure, maybe go see it? Maybe catch it On Demand some day or HBO.
Score: 75