By Emilio Frenk
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Ana Ularu and Ben Foster.
Rating: Poor
Academy Award Winners Ron Howard and Tom Hanks team up again for this third installment “Inferno” based on the series of novels written by Dan Brown and it’s from expected.
Proffesor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) suffers from amnesia after being kidnapped in Italy. He wakes up in a hospital where he will be helped by Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicty Jones) and she will try to help him recover his memory.
At the beginning Langdon doesn’t remember where he is but slowly he will put the pieces in the puzzle together.
He will then realize that there is a plot that could end the world and is based on “Dante’s Inferno”, which eventually is revealed as a prophecy. Now both Langdon and Brooks will run on the clock around Europe and will try to prevent a global outbreak before it’s too late.
The main problem with this part of the trilogy is the fact the screenplay was too weak, predicatable and eventually it turned into a movie that became slow in rythym and pacing.
This is the second script of the installment written by David Koepp and it has many flaws and one of them is the abuse of unnecessary flashbacks and the movie has the same clichés over and over again. Although some of those elements worked but it became a constant tool.
Although I was really surprised with the third act of the film and it’s the only thing that I felt intrigued withñ The suspense that it was built in the final confrontation in Istanbul, Turkey when the virus is about to be released it was very well made and beautifuly shot and edited.
The score composed by Academy Award Winner Hans Zimmer, who’s most notorious work is in movie like “The Lion King” (which he won the award for) and most of the Ridley Scott films played a huge factor in most of the movie and it’s one of the few things that I enjoyed.
I have an enourmous respect towards Ron Howard who I consider a very important director and a great one but this is the second movie in a row that his directing doesn’s work. This happened with last year’s “In the Heart of the Sea” making the movie really slow and honestly I couldn’t care less about the characters.
This respect is also towards Tom Hanks, who I consider one of the most charismatic actors in the business and a talented, but his third performance as Robert Langdon didn’t transmit any emotion at all.
On a positive note about the trilogy is that this third installment is the one that I enjoyed the most since it does have some interesting elements. The previous two were moreslower and boring than this one, making them forgettable films
The movie had potential to be a good thriller but the problem is that it gave tons of information to the viewer and by moments I felt alienated.
“Inferno” is one of the biggest dissapointments of the year. If you have read all the books by Dan Brown you might differ with me which is totally fine and respectful but this is an honest reflection of what I saw on thescreen and the only thing that works like I mentioned before is the climax of the film.