Inferno is the latest film based off the novel by Dan Brown, directed by Ron Howard, and starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. Following the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, Inferno hopes to cash in on the success of both its film predecessors and best selling novels. So does it? Let’s find out…!

Story: The film opens with Langdon waking up in a hospital after nearly being shot and he doesn’t know or remember what’s going on. Then an assassin comes and he and his doctor have to escape, only to find out that they have to help save the world from a deadly plague. Despite being very predictable, the story is pretty fast paced moving from one scene to the next and roles along nicely, however everything comes to a screeching halt as they have to not only explain the relationship between the villain and his partner but also between Langdon and a random lover from his past. It breaks any sense of excitement it had going for it and when the action picked back up, I just didn’t care anymore.

Acting: In my review of Sully, I thought that Tom Hanks did have a great performance when compared to his previous roles, such as Captain Phillips or Bridge of Spies. HOWEVER. When you compare those roles to the one here, it’s absurd how bad it is. It’s like he knew he had to be in this film but he didn’t want to put in the effort. It’s not horrible but it’s not really good either. Additionally, Felicity Jones, who plays his partner, is kind lazy and not memorable at all. Omar Sy and Ben Foster round out the cast and they too are just dull and uninteresting.

Presentation: A majority of the movie features flashbacks and visions of an apocalypse and they’re done very poorly, especially in the beginning of the film. The shots in these scenes are so janky and wobbly that it’s hard to focus or even make out what’s going on. There are a hundred different ways the Ron Howard could’ve done instead we got this lazy and disorientating thing that really adds nothing to the movie. Additionally, the music is inconsistent; some points we get orchestral music and elsewhere we get weird techno music. Overall, it’s just poorly made.

Effect: As I mentioned in the story section, all motion in the story stops about 30 minutes from the end and I never felt like it got back on track. However, my biggest problem with here is the ending. The story is about stopping this plague and in the end (spoiler alert) they stop it in the most cliched manner possible. I was hoping that they wouldn’t be able to stop it and the whole time our heroes were on a path with the intention of distracting them. It would have been awesome, but instead what we got is so cliched its boring.

Other: I’m taking points off here not only for being boring but also being very repetitive. The opening credits has a character giving a speech and that speech is repeated 5 different times throughout. If the director thinks that we the audience cannot what remember what happened in the beginning of a two hour movie and thinks that they need to repeat information for us, then something is wrong.

At the end of this, I’m kind of sad. I really like Angels and Demons (and the Da Vinci Code to a lesser extent) and was hoping this film would be similar. Unfortunately, we ended up with something that feels nothing like it’s predecessors.

Story: 5
Acting: 6
Presentation: 4
Effect: 4
Other: 5

Score: 4.8

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