The Da Vinci Code is a best selling novel and is already doing well at the box office. However, it has caused outrage and even condemnation from certain religious group, but why?

If you've never heard of the Da Vinci Code, then I must ask you what planet you're visiting from because even I, a non-reader for the most part, was aware of this one. I the person who'd never heard of Mr Potter when his films were released.

A priest is found dead in the Louvre in Paris and a cryptologist and specialist is called in to decifer the markings on the body. Although the man had been killed by a single bullet wound he is covered in what are originally believed to be pagan symbols.

The police, suspect the main guy and he has to escape with the help of a young lady who was also summoned to the scene. They stumble across a series of clues that lead them on a quest for the Holy Grail, but not the Holy Grail that we all know and love ... the true Holy Grail, a woman named Mary Magdeline. A woman who it claimed was married to Jesus and who had a child, and therefore descendants. In a nutshell, that's the storyline, but why all the fuss?

The Catholic church and in particular a sub-group called Opus Dei are portrayed in a very bad light. Shown as religious extremists of almost the "suicide bomber" kind, they are assassins, liars and power hungry scoundrels. So you can understand why they'd be a tad upset.

For the church more widely, the problem is far more fundamental than the misdeeds of a few members or a corrupt leadership. It claims and tries to support the notion that Jesus himself was never Devine and that it was just something cooked up in the later centuries. Thus the very foundations of Christianity are cast into doubt if any of these acusations are even remotely true.

I must admit that, as a Christian even having read up on the film prior to its release, it did come accross (at times) as convincing. Misinformation is wrapped skillfully in truths and half truths to make it sound at least plausible and cast doubts in the viewers mind.

But then it's fiction and all good fiction allows you to get wrapped up in the storyline, telling you enough truth to make it sound plausible. Science Fiction films do this all the time, so why such fuss over this?

Unlike science and history, religious faith is far more personal. Film's where depictions of real people are done in a poor light often invoke reactions and for a great many people, including myself, the character being tarnished hits a nerve. Jesus was human and his having been married is, in one sense, not a problem. But taking away his divinity is.

The film itself was your typical twisty thriller movie (not unlike National Treasure) with the characters racing against time to complete the riddle. There was some moderate action and even some clever "double takes" and moderate twistiness. The high profile nature of the film had, in effect, spoiled any revelations as to content and thus left it unexciting. It also suffered in the same way Return of the King did at the end, going on a bit too long.

Had the film been on any other topic than that of Jesus Christ, I probably would have enjoyed it more than I actually did. At times I wanted to yell at the screen and tell it where it had made some errors, but I did manage to keep them in.

see also:
Spider-man 3, Spider-man, Spider-man 2, Iron Man

User rating: 4 (1 votes) [rate this movie]
photo © Columbia Pictures.