Warning: This movie review may have spoilers ahead.
Okay, you know what actually kills a movie for you?
Expectations.
Some things are not meant to disappoint you until you really are expecting big things out of it. And that is exactly what happens with Inferno. Being a Dan Brown story, with its usual plot lines and motifs, its regular dosage of make-belief and cliches, you expect a lot to understand and see that you wouldn’t imagine otherwise.
Added to that, when it is being helmed by such an expert cast and crew who did deliver two absolutely fine Robert Langdon movies, you don’t expect a movie that just makes you cringe.
A lot of movie-goers out there might really love this adventure-packed-conspiracy-based-save-the-lovely-world movie, but it simply was a flimsy dismal attempt to sell back a half-baked cake I originally refused. The finishing might be lovely, but everything just fell apart at the core of it. There was simply nothing stunning in the Inferno movie.
Pardon me for saying that. Like I said, you can blame my expectations.
What Was So Unacceptable?
Sometimes when the credits start rolling at the end of the movie, you look at the trillion names who have worked so hard to make this movie and muse, “What were they thinking?”
That happened with me for Inferno.
A. The Cast Simply Fails You.
Tom Hanks does a decent job as Robert Langdon, yes DECENT. We already know enough about him to not expect him to be some kind of superhero. So, his suave cryptographic listlessness made me want to leap out of my seat and wave my arms screaming, “It’s okay you don’t have to be our suit wearing Cambridge Batman!”
He just looked like he wanted all of it to be over quickly. Like us.
Felicity Jones as Sienna Brooks is nothing like the sophisticated prodigy you’d expect her to be. Yes, as a movie character she is underdeveloped and looks obsessed. You don’t just suspect why is she in Florence, but why is she in the movie at all? To be the anti-heroine? She brings nothing refreshing on the palate.
The only good thing in the movie is Irrfan Khan. He makes the role of The Provost his own, and wears it true. The character’s meanness exhibited the perfectly balanced coldness that his job warranted. All the other characters in Inferno were simply stiff and pawn-like, it looked like they were really trying to act well.
I was completely stumped by the female assassin. No menace! I couldn’t even care to catch her name.
B. There Was Nothing To Take Away From The Story
The movie does take your breath away by the sheer magnitude of its premise and the force of conviction with which it progresses.
The work on the visions was good, they were quite arresting. But I am not sure how much Dante would like this movie since it heavily borrows from his mythography, they don’t do even the lil justice that the book did to his details. Or that to the other historically associated artists and personages.
Or even to the gravity of the issue they were dealing with. All the intensity was focused on keeping the chase interesting.
Nor to any part of the locations or objects. The pace of the movie simply discounts the beauty it is centered around. Given even a second or two more to look at some things might have enlivened their importance further, but I can imagine how it would lengthen the movie.
Maybe a director’s cut could remedy that?
All in all, the clumsy pacing, which the thinned down plot necessitated was the poor foundation that the whole enterprise caved under.
To conclude…
The movie tries to keep the information on the cool to avoid a risqué of being too heavy for the audience. It does grip you, keep you on the edge. But just when it ends you are like, “Aww… Damn!”
Simply put this is another case of the regular, yet glaring, loopholes that book-to-movie transitions face. C’mon, I can lambaste their movie but I do acknowledge the hard work.
I just have a problem with why it doesn’t look effortless like it should on screen!
Awfully predictive, my Inferno movie review gives it a 2/5.
Read more:
http://edtimes.in/2016/09/pink-is-a-rare-film-for-indian-cinema-the-ed-review/
http://edtimes.in/2016/09/ek-baar-bhi-mat-dekho-ed-reviews-baar-baar-dekho/
http://edtimes.in/2016/08/madaari-review/
