Review by Sarai Lewis
Rating: 2.5/5
Inferno is a mystery movie directed by Ron Howard, based on the 2013 book of the same name by Dan Brown.
This movie is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, as the third installment in the Robert Langdon film series starring Tom Hanks.
Symbolist Dr. Robert Langdon (Hanks) follows a trail of clues tied to Dante, the medieval poet, or as some saw as “Father of the Italian Language”. When Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), a doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories.
Together, they find themselves traveling across Europe against the clock to stop a scientist/madman from unleashing a virus (named after Dante's “Inferno”), that would wipe out half of the Earth's population.
The acting in this movie was pretty good, although throughout the first scenes that Dr. Langdon was struggling with amnesia, it seemed like he recovered extremely quickly then fell off again. It didn’t seem too realistic in that way and was a bit unbelievable.
I felt that the action wasn't really the main idea of the film, and I didn’t really feel like it was detrimental to the movie or the story to have perfect action sequences.
The stunts within the action sequences in this movie were fairly minimal, but when they did happen they looked fairly good. The action itself along with the use of filmwork looked nice and worked with the rest of the movie well.
The wardrobe for all of the characters in this movie were fitting and weren’t anything too extravagant. Plain, modern clothing and no special makeup made up the entirety of the wardrobe and wasn't something to specifically remember.
The plot itself was interesting to watch and was told well. In comparison to the 2006 'The Da Vinci Code', it was pretty similar in how the story was told and how it progressed until the end.
There wasn't a definitive soundtrack to this movie, and there wasn’t a particular track that stood out for me to remember.
However, I did like the filmwork in this movie. It felt very connected to the rest of the movie and it helped tell the story well. The flashes of Dr. Langdon's visions seemed hyper-sharp and the colors worked together well. The special effects used in the 'vision' sequences looked good, and they told the story well using only visuals.
The casting was put together nicely with the return of Tom Hanks as Dr. Langdon. The rest of the cast went decently together,
The characters weren't anything super extravagant, and the only character I think I could hold onto was the star, Dr. Langdon (Hanks). Felicity Jones as Dr. Sienna Brooks was memorable but not very exciting to watch as a character. The development of her character in particular was a bit thin in a way that there were a couple moments in her sub-plot that seemed a bit hypocritical.
Speaking of strange moments in the plot, there was one particular scene that stood out to me. About 75 to 80% of the way through the movie there was a scene that a car pulled up and the license plate ended in three sixes. It seemed a bit strange and caught me off guard, especially with the theme of the rest of the movie. I'm not sure if it was an intentional message but it was just downright weird.
One thing I'd like to mention is that the movies don't seem to go in a specific sequence as far as the story goes, which is nice if you haven't seen the other two movies but want to enjoy the newest installment.
Overall, I liked this movie but it wasn't too much different than The Da Vinci Code from 2006. It was not one that I would particularly recommend as a personal favorite but it was an entertaining watch all the same.