Inferno

Mystery films are a usual staple genre that Hollywood has graced us with for a long time now. We have seen a plethora of them, and every time they are viewed, the audience becomes more intrigued with them than ever. "Inferno" is actually the third installment of the Robert Langdon series based on Dan Brown's novels--the other two being "The Da Vinci Code" '06 and "Angels & Demons" '09. Again, being mysteries themselves, audiences have become enamored with these.

 

This story finds the famous symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) on a trail of clues tied to the great Dante himself. When Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he inadvertently teams up with Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), a doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories. Together, they race across Europe and against the clock to stop a madman, Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) from unleashing a global virus that could wipe out half of the world's population. When Langdon finally finds a copy of the drawing of Dante's Inferno, he comes to realize that this global virus is linked to the ideals of Dante's view of hell. Can Langdon, Brooks and others including Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and others have the time to stop this unfathomable genocide from happening?

 

Others to round out the cast are Omar Sy as Christoph Bouchard, Irrfan Khan as Harry Sims, Ana Ularu as Vayentha, Ida Darvish as Marta Alvarez and Poalo Antonio Simioni as Dr. Marconi.

 

This was directed by the incomparable Ron Howard ("Grand Theft Auto" '77, "Night Shift" '82, "Gung Ho" '86, "Parenthood" '89, "Apollo 13" '95, "A Beautiful Mind" '01, "Frost/Nixon" '08, "Rush" '13, "In the Heart of the Sea" '15) plus many others and TV. You know the film will be a well crafted film when it teams, once again, Howard and Hanks--which many have been teamed by them. They obviously work well together so the outcome typically is of high caliber. Howard has directed all the Robert Langdon series plus "Apollo 13",and "Splash", which stars Hanks. Similar cases are with director, Martin Scorsese working in several films with both Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio and director, Tim Burton working in several films with Johnny Depp. It makes it so easy when director and actor can work together well and produce a great film all the while entertaining us and making a ton of money. It is truly the best of all worlds. It was effectively written by David Koepp ("Death Becomes Her" '92, "Jurassic Park" '93, "The Paper" '94, "Stir of Echoes" '99, "Panic Room" '02, "War of the Worlds" '05, "Angels & Demons" '09, "Premium Rush" '12, "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" '14) plus many others. As with Howard's directing, Koepp certainly is a seasoned, established screenwriter-- his resume reveals this. Although this and "Angels & Demons" were far better written by Koepp as opposed to "The Da Vinci Code" being written by another writer, this still had some flaws. It started out very exciting with Langdon waking up in a strange place only to end up being chased. Then as the film reached the mid point, it started to meander a bit and got bogged down in some slow places in script. As it was frustrating me, it, all of a sudden, picked up and became the film I believe the audience was actually looking for. For Koepp-- a bad day at the laptop? Not sure, but this writer can be a hit and miss type of writer. Of course every writer has his or her bad or mediocre work, so to call this a total wash? Absolutely not, although it's not a great film either. Both Hanks and Jones were effective in their roles, but even they couldn't save this from being the film we were hoping it would be.

 

As I've stated above, a bad film? No, but not a great one either. The beginning and end of the storyline was probably the best this screenplay had to offer. It was solid in places but certainly needed to be a bit tighter in its conveyance to its audience. You be the judge.

 

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                Rated: PG-13                                 121mins.