Inferno
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.
Cast
Tom Hanks – Robert Langdon
Felicity Jones – Dr. Sienna Brooks
Omar Sy – Christoph Bouchard
Ben Foster – Bertranfd Zobrist
Sidse Babett Knudsen – Elizabeth Sinskey
Red Eye
Well. Inferno wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. Shame that, because I enjoyed Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. But when Inferno had finished I felt neither satisfied or dissatisfied.
The feature begins,
Hanks spends 60% of it running around with his jacket flapping (like a city businessman trying to make it to Subway before the lunch rush begins),
the feature concludes,
the credits roll.
As unoriginal as this might be, Inferno does manage to blend a nice amount of mystery into its plot. Langdon waking up in hospital for example is a good little scene. One of those tightly wound, exciting scenes that involve narrow escapes through the back doors (the fire exit doors of industrial buildings always come in use in Hollywood, don’t they). This scene is speedy and slick, a good way to get the movie going. Shortly after this, the scene involving the use of the Dante painting is pretty cool too; Langdon and Brooks using a small gadget to display an image on the wall and discovering various clues amongst the picture. These scenes contained the same sort of cryptic hurry Da Vinci Code did, and ensured a subtle buzz of excitement. Top marks here for Hanks’ and Jones creating an air of excitement with their stern facial expressions.
Random observation: I noticed how every character who gets whacked violently in or around the cranial area ends up with red eyes. Even Hanks at one stage looks as though he contracted pinkeye from someone backstage. And when Harry is attacked by Brooks on a moving train, he soon recovers and gets up – displaying a red eye. Top marks for director Ron Howard, for being so thorough in portrayal of burst eye blood vesels.
Perhaps if the rest of Inferno wasn’t so dull I might’ve had something other than nicely reddened eye-whites to focus on…
80% Water, 20% Thrill
Inferno was like a watered-down action flick with the lead characters running around the city in urgency, but minus the gripping events. In all honesty, I’ve gotten more of a thrill sprinting down Tottenham Court Road on a drunken Saturday night than sat watching Hanks stumble around Florence. It just wasn’t intense enough, and different to what I was expecting. Oh the full story was exposed in all its mystery, but something was missing. Inferno could have been a hell of a lot more exciting (pun fully intended).
On a positive, the finale was one of the most enjoyable scenes. ‘The Bag’ is given an intense close-up lit up nicely in deep red / black. The clarity of such a simple image was great and ensured an instant rise in tension. And then when Langdon and Sinskey wade through the indoor water feature to try and contain the virus, what was a dull movie so far quickly becomes exciting. It is this scene which turns Inferno round, and makes it a nail-biting watch. Even I was sat there – eyes firmly fixed on the giant cinema screen – wondering.. hoping.. waiting..
Top marks here for director Ron Howard once more, as he swoops in and makes a very close save.
Inferno scored 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. And I am not surprised. It is nowhere near the intriguing level of entertainment of Da Vinci Code, or Angels and Demons. Base my opinion of a third movie on its two preceding two?..
..fucking right. Sorry, but if you want a solid consistency of stories involving the same character then each movie has to be as juicy as the next / last. Not hit the third and become worse. This is what Inferno did – it flopped. Even more than Hanks’ hair-do. And as for the leading man himself.. his Langdon quality is quickly fading, I didn’t get the same vibe from this installment.
Getting better with age or worse? I’ll let you decide.
There isn’t much more I can elaborate on here. But is Inferno worth paying for to view?
Absolutely not. Don’t waste your money people.
Ricky's Film Reviews 