Da Vinci Code, The – Extended Cut

Posted May 24, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

When Jacques Saunière gets murdered inside the Louvre, history specialist Robert Langdon is requested to attend the murder scene by Captain Bezu Fache: on the ground there are several codes written the Langdon may explain, but more important: Langdon’s name is present as well which makes Fache think Langdon is the murderer. Langdon doesn’t know this but agent Sophie Neveu who was related to Saunière believes the message the dead man wrote is a sign that Langdon has a message for her. After all, Langdon was supposed to meet Saunière that day.

Veneu decides to help Langdon stay out of the hands of Fache and together they head off to unravel the mystery of the puzzle Saunière has laid out. A puzzle that will lead them to a religious secret that has been protected for centuries and may shake the foundations of Christianity.

Sound and Vision:
The image quality is as you would expect very well. The images nicely add to the atmosphere that Ron Howard wanted to create in each seperate scene and compression errors are completely absent.

Although the disc cover lists a Dolby TrueHD track, it’s not present. At least, not in English. Indeed, Sony decided to give the French their dubbed sound in TrueHD, but those that want the original sound have to do with standard Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Why? Because there wasn’t enough room anymore to have an English TrueHD track after the addition of the French one. As such, we get the 5.1 track that was also present one the DVD and although it’s pretty good, we hate the fact that Sony prefers a dubbed track over the original one for our market. Sad!

Extras:
The first disc contains a picture-in-picture feature called Unlocking the code which gives access to interview fragments, concept art, commentary and so on. Also a first look at Angels & Demons (the sequel) is present.

The second disc starts with a ton of short features that were also present on the DVD.
New, however, are the following:
– Book to Screen
– The Da Vinci Code Props
– The Da Vinci Code Sets
– Recreating works of Art
– The Visual Effects World of the Da Vinci Code
– Scoring The Da Vinci Code
The titles already give a good idea of what to expect.

Conclusion:
Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was a major bestseller and this of course had to result in a movie. The actors seem to be doing their job on auto-pilot except for Ian McKellen who does a splendid job. Hanks has made Langdon a rather smart version of Forrest Gump while Tatou tends to break the limits of over-acting at times. Paul Bettany on the other hand plays like a robot and doesn’t manage to uplift his character above the average robot-like extremist.

I haven’t read the book myself but if the movie is anything like it, I’m really wondering what’s so special about it. Is it “shocking” that the catholic church isn’t a bunch of good guys? I really don’t think so. Is the plot so amazingly special that we haven’t seen anything like it in years? Actually, I found it quite predictable. So, what makes The Da Vinci Code so special? Honestly, I wouldn’t know. In my opinion it’s a rather mediocre thriller that does its job but doesn’t stand out in any way.

My opinion on the movie remains the same after having it seen again, but those that liked it will no doubt have some fun with this Blu-ray release as it does add quite a few (short) extras that didn’t make the DVD. On the other hand, the lack of an English TrueHD is a mistake of extreme grandure that shows in Europe Sony has no clue about their audience.

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