"Inferno" Review

After a 7-year hiatus, the adventures of author Dan Brown's inquisitive university professor Robert Langdon continue in Inferno. They say "third time's the charm," but let's be honest. Your appreciation of Inferno will depend entirely on your tolerance for The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

This time, Langdon (Tom Hanks) wakes up in an Italian hospital wondering how he got there. With the close aide of Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), the professor finds himself unwittingly at the center of a sinister plot to release a worldwide plague orchestrated by charismatic billionaire Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster). The virus is expected to halve the world's population. To stop it, Langdon and Dr. Brooks must solve a series of riddles which all bear a striking connection to Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy." Hot on their tails are an assassin (Ana Ularu) with an allegiance to a dubious security organization, Bouchard (Omar Sy), a private security officer with a shady personal agenda, and W.H.O. agent Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a figure from Langdon's past.

The source material surely has its own Indiana Jones B-movie roots, but the screenplay from David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible) does precious little to elevate it beyond dreck. The script has a couple of neat twists, and director Ron Howard commands a game cast. However, even the incomparable Tom Hanks can only do so much with lines such as "It's Dante... yes... YES!" The player who seems to be having the most fun is Irrfan Khan who plays Henry Sims, a fixer with no particular commitment to the good or the bad guys. Khan chews the scenery as well as he can, and his presence alleviates the film's monotony at times. The proceedings are fast-paced but largely dry due to Koepp's risible dialogue. There's also just not much direction here. I've always felt that Howard's identity as a director disappears with these Da Vinci Code movies, and that streak continues. He's better than this. Everyone involved is.

It's rumored that Sony declined to make a film out of Langdon's only other adventure The Lost Symbol due to creative similarities with Disney's National Treasure. I think that's for the best.

D+