The Davinci Code

[Rella Bella]

The hoopla over this is such a waste of energy-its a NOVEL!

Exactly! I don't understand people debating the "issues" in a work of fiction!

 

[katerkat]

I read the book and while it was good it was FAR from the best book I have ever read.

Ditto! It was certainly interesting, but nothing outstanding. I liked Angels and Demons more, but never bothered to read the rest of his books. There are much better thrillers, better written, out there.

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

I liked Deception Point the best out of his 4 books, but I still thoroughly enjoyed The DaVinci Code. So I'm going to be seeing it this weekend.

I heard he's doing a sequel to DaVinci Code...I wonder what the heck it's going to be about He pretty much covered it all in the first book.

 

[MariettaC]

Saturday night

 

[bicker]

People always get worked up with fiction cuts close to fact, especially fact they don't want discussed.

 

[Goobergal99]

Well DH and I are both off today so we decided to go see it @ 11 am while DD is in school. Hope it's good

 

[RUDisney]

I'll see the movie but in all honestly I don't remember much except some nasty sex ritual in the basement that I think Sophie walked in on.

ACK! I forgot about that! This could wind up being the reason that my kids can't see it!

Those who see it, please rate on this level. Can I take my 10 and 11 yo kids to see it?

 

[LoraJ]

Well DH and I are both off today so we decided to go see it @ 11 am while DD is in school. Hope it's good

Let us know!

We'll probably see it tomorrow.

I am hoping they make a movie version of Angel's & Demons. But I worry if DC tanks, no one will want to produce it. Deception Point would actually make a good movie too. I still have to read Digital Fortress.

 

[alabamaalan]

Exactly! I don't understand people debating the "issues" in a work of fiction!

People always get worked up with fiction cuts close to fact, especially fact they don't want discussed.

I would say that answers the question. Too many people, including Brown apparently, believe that a series of long discredited (and poorly researched) theories are fact because everyone loves a good conspiracy theory.

I have been amused at the glut of books debunking it because they are giving more publicity to a movie that probably would go away quickly on its own if the reviews are any indication.

I'm more concerned about the Maonic misinformation he will come out with. And although you will even hear it from some Masons, the reality seems to be that no one in the fraternity had any influence over the design of the dollar bill either. (Much less connections to the Illuminati )

However, back to the original intent of the thread. I probably will not see it just because of not going out to the theatres often, but I'll rent it when it comes out. I hate to see Hanks placed in a role that he can not shine in though.

 

[sodaseller]

Great lines from the Philadelphia Daily News

First, as a non-Catholic, let me say the notion of Christ's being married does not offend me. Part of the appeal of Jesus is that he was sent to earth to feel our pain, to be just as miserable as the rest of us. What better way than being married?

What did offend me was the idea that the real legacy of Christ, who blessed the poor and meek, evicted the money changers and told Caesar to bugger off, was as sire to a monarchy, another tiresome European aristocracy: a "royal bloodline" whose members can marry tennis players, get DWI citiations and end up on Page Six.

There are those who found the bloody Christ of Mel Gibson's "Passion" hard to take. I prefer the bloody to the bluebloody.

 

[Goobergal99]

Ok, We saw it yesterday and the acting was really BAD, They also changed a few minor details but overall they stuck to the novel.Tom Hanks was a horrible Robert Langdon However, "Magneto" made a great Teabing, come to think of it he was the only good actor in the entire film.

It also didn't help that there was a couple who decided to bring their screaming infant with them. Word to the masses "If you can't get a babysitter STAY HOME, noone wants to hear your kid yell at all the key moments in the movie, selfish "

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

While I loved the book, I can't get over Tom Hanks in the lead role . Also, when was the last time a movie lived up to the book. I will wait until I can get it on Netflix. I love the idea of Russel Crowe though.

See that was the problem for me. I started reading the book and then they announced that Tom Hanks was playing the lead and that was it for me!! I could not see him in the role and all I could do when I read the book was picture HIM. Just could not fishish the book. I will see the movie maybe I am wrong about him.

 

[SueM in MN]

ACK! I forgot about that! This could wind up being the reason that my kids can't see it!

Those who see it, please rate on this level. Can I take my 10 and 11 yo kids to see it?

SPOILERS AHEAD
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I would probably not take a 10 or 11 year old to it. It's a very long movie (2.5 hours) and has a lot of violence for a PG 13 movie.

They do have several "flashbacks" that show the sex ritual. Most of them just show the robed and masked people described in the circle in the book. At least one sequence shows the 2 bodies in the center of the circle. You see a naked back and legs (I won't describe it any more, but you can get the picture if you read the book). One part about how they handled it that was different than the book is that her "fight" with her grandfather isn't over viewing the ritual. It's because he finds her in his office as about a 10 yr old searching thru his things for information about her parents. In the flashback, he's really angry at her, screams at her to never look for information about her parents again because they are dead and gone and nearly hits her. She says after that they "rarely spoke" and she was sent off to boarding school. Sauniere doesn't come off as the loving grandfather that you get from the book. Actually, he comes off as kind of creepy.
In the movie, she viewed the ritual when she came home from boarding school one night and looked thru the basement windows (still looked pretty young to be on her own roaming around at night and if I was doing a super secret ritual, I would not do it in a basement with windows where any curious person could come by and watch).
In the book, she is a college student who came home unexpectedly, heard some noises and then found a secret room in a basement that she didn't even know the house had. Since he didn't know she saw it and wasn't expecting her, she left the house and never mentioned it. Up until that time (at least in the book), their relationship was loving.
It's much more disturbing in the movie version to know the ritual was viewed by a child and that people must have known she saw it and didn't really take any safeguards to keep her from seeing it.
She doesn't really describe all of what she saw to Langdon and the ritual is never explained (other than that it is a "secret ritual" and her grandfather must have been the head of the society).

Other things to be aware of for kids.
Silas - they show him removing his cilice in his room and changing it to the other leg. You can tell that he is naked under the robe, but you don't really see any "parts". They also show him doing the self flaggelation. They focus on the pain caused by both; there are close-ups of him up on his toes, with his toes curled in pain. Way over acted; if someone was really in the level of pain he was, I don't think they could go around doing all the things he does.
Silas is also very scary looking. He has almost a robotic quality to him if you have a child who takes things from movies into nightmares, Silace could be in them for a while.

Violence - they linger on most of the deaths to the point where you want to say "I get it, he's dead, don't show me any more."

Death of Sophie's family - They show the car crash as a memory flashback with Sophie in the back seat. You have no warning for the flashback. Something innocent is happening in the memory and then, all of a sudden, there it is.

 

[RUDisney]

Thanks for your update! Sounds like the kids won't be seeing this until I rent it, watch it and decide that they can't see it yet.

They'll be mad because of all the hype on TV, but they'll understand why when they're older.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

DS15 and I saw the movie last night. I have to say as a life long Lutheran I feel I'm open minded and the movie provokes some great discussions points. I think DS & I talked more about Christ and the Church that we ever have after seeing the movie.

I had read the book some time ago and I didn't see any really glaring differences from that to the movie. The only thing I can say is that I didn't come out of the movie going "Wow that was a great movie". It was o.k. If nothing else it allowed me to have some serious theological discussions with DS.

Have to add that our local small town theater showed it in the very smallest screen they have and it was packed. It is not a movie I would take my DS9 to - it's too long and some of the scenes of Silas and the other deaths would be a little too intense I think.

I was a little surprised that DS15 actually agreed to go to this movie with his Mom!

 

[SueM in MN]

I had read the book some time ago and I didn't see any really glaring differences from that to the movie.

I do agree reading the book brought out some good discussion with my oldest DD and I . She has not seen the movie yet and we won't discuss it until she has.
I had just re-read the book and there were some things that I felt were glaring changes - they didn't really change the plot, but DID change the tone of things, especially the relationship between Sophie and Sauniere.
I won't say more, but the part in the church in England is very different than the book.

 

[rie'smom]

People always get worked up with fiction cuts close to fact, especially fact they don't want discussed.

If the fact is that Jesus sired a daughter with Mary Magdeline and this begat the Marovengian line then that "fact" is false. DNA testing was done on the remains of a direct descendant of the Marovengian line and the DNA was found to be "purely European with no chance of Middle Eastern antecedant." So I guess that 'fact' that Brown and others believe to be true has been dismissed.

 

[Goobergal99]

I guess my family are what most ppl would call "caffeteria catholics" (although I myself am a recovering catholic )

I went to catholic school all the way until college and I can honestly say that I don't understand why catholics get all worked up about the possibility of a blood line. As if Jesus having children somehow takes away from the impact he had on humanity.

Personally I don't understand how any modern woman could possibly accept the role that the church assigns to them. How can you raise strong girls in a church that is so sexist and demeaning toward their anatomy? I personally think it would be great if Mary Magdalene and Jesus were considered equal partners. Why is even modern day religion so threatened by the female?

 

[Minniespal]

We are going to see it tonight. I loved the book and am really looking forward to seeing the movie.

 

[debbiedoo]

My best friend and I went to go see this last nite -- and thought before I wrote a few thoughts. . . . .

Yes the movie was a good movie, my recommendation if you want to go and see this, read the book first, it goes much more into detail--but then again the book is usally better with a 2 and 1/2 hour movie and the details from the book, it was well done and put together.

If you have the chance to go and see this -- thumbs up

and I think that another lead actor for Robert Langdon should have been chosen -- but we can not change that--so . . . .

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I chose not to write a full review until others have had the chance to see it.