Inferno Movie Review

Inferno (2016)

Buy Inferno on Amazon Video // Buy the Novel
Written by: David Brown (screenplay by), David Koepp (screenplay by)
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Omar Sy
Rating: PG-13

Plot
When Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Dr. Sienna Brooks, and together they must race across Europe against the clock to foil a deadly global plot.

Verdict
This movie is long, the mystery is bland, and it lacks intrigue. It's just not fun. Multiple times I considered stopping early. I didn't, and I have nothing to show for it.
While I remember the books being engrossing, I can't really remember the movies. This movie I'll remember as boring and uninspiring.
Skip it.

Review
Based on the 2013 novel, this is the third movie of the franchise, following The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009).

I remember the books as engrossing page turners. The prose is a bit flat, but the story made up for it. I barely remember the first two movies, other than some bad Hanks hair. This movie's story feels like a cheap way to jump start a  mystery. Langdon wakes up with short term amnesia. He doesn't know what's going on or where he is. Plenty of images flit through his mind, a lot of them reminiscent of Dante's nine levels of hell.

In short order a cop, who we assume is rogue, comes to kill Langdon, but his doctor risks her life to save him. Talk about going above and beyond. There are many fast paced sequences, but this lacks intrigue. It's a manufactured mystery as Langdon attempts to remember what he's done over the past couple of days. It's not clever.

Zobrist is kind of fun. He's a billionaire scientist that killed himself in the beginning of the movie with no context. He thinks humans are  a disease and that over population must be stopped. He's a mustache twirling type villain and we get to see him through Youtube videos. It really is amazing how prevalent Youtube has become in movies. This even has a sequence where Langdon logs into his Gmail account. These sites are ubiquitous. Unfortunately, they aren't the best way to provide information.

This movie is long. Multiple times I considered stopping the movie and seeing if wikipedia.com had a serviceable summary. The ending is a pull the rug out from under you moment, that is another cheap move. While I liked the final scene with Langdon righting a wrong in a somewhat comical way, it was in no way worth sitting through this movie.