Thumbs down to DaVinci Code Movie

Movie met with catcalls, jeers at Cannes.

Folks, it appears that the DaVinci Code movie is a bomb. According to CNN:

At Cannes, one scene during the film, meant to be serious, elicited prolonged laughter from the audience, and when the credits rolled, there was no applause, only a few catcalls and hisses. Things were no better Stateside, where the film screened for critics in New York.

Signis, the Catholic communication association in France, declared the movie "A film which, finally, the Church has little to be concerned about." According to the Catholic News Agency:

The Catholic association described the film as “simply a popular entertainment. While the early scenes set us on an exciting treasure hunt, the wordiness of the drawn out twists of the later part of the film will disappoint many cinemagoers.”

“The film wants rather to please everyone and not upset them too much. The writers have added quite a number of dialogue exchanges which downplay the more controversial statements of the novel about the Church, the divinity of Jesus, the role of Mary Magdalene and even Opus Dei.

Signis wished that “the Church can benefit from this phenomenon in explaining the theological foundations of faith and the hopes of all Christians.”

Time Magazine's critic, Richard Corliss, also slams the movie, yet...

...admires the film for not shying away from the book's more controversial assertions: "Beneath the chases and crashes, the chalices and cilices [hair shirts], it denies Jesus' divinity. ... And further still: the film challenges the belligerence that too often adheres to religious believers, the wars and atrocities perpetrated in His name."

As if militant secularists, atheists, agnostics, and Neo-Pagans have only brought us sweetness and light and not the deadliest, most devastating wars and genocides in human history. But let's be fair, he was not addressing the larger historical and ideological context.

This morning in NBC's Today Show, I watched Sir Ian McKellen, who played "Gandalf" in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, reply to demands that the DaVinci Code movie include an opening disclaimer by saying:

“Well, I’ve often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it’s true, not that it’s factual, but that it’s a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after they’ve seen it.”

(Thank you Dom Bettinelli for capturing the quote).

Ah, those British skeptics, love them or hate them! Or just ignore them. It always astonishes me to hear so much ignorance streaming from the lips of the self-proclaimed learned. The spectrum of stupidity runs from the triteness of Doonesbury to the tirades of Harry Bellafonte. Sir Ian's remaks fall somewhere in between.

Anyway. The artistry of the DaVinci Code movie apparently didn't move those who care of such things, so that from the viewpoint of avant garde critics and intellectuals, the work will hardly be a "blip" in their radars. However, the movie will still provide plenty of foder to those who hate Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular. We should rejoice that the movie has failed to get critical aclaim, but we still need to remain on guard because Neo-Pagans and Neo-Gnostics still consider the book and the movie a triumph for having pushed their ideas to the mainstream. Without a doubt, they'll try again.