A thoroughly pedestrian adventure that might have been better titled Hell is Lots and Lots of Other People.. At least, that's the belief of the billionaire bad guy in Ron Howard's latest adaptation of Dan Brown's series featuring symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks). What to do about overbreeding humanity? Well, the Black Plague helped out way back when; maybe we could use another one of those. "Maybe," as our baddie intones, "pain can save us." What does the Dante poem about hell referenced in the actual title have to do with any of this? Very little. But it does afford the viewer a moment of hope that Howard has decided to make a psycho-horror movie instead of a scenic walk-and-talk about olde-timey stuff between Hanks and whomever (usually Felicity Jones). The first 20 minutes or so are dotted with visions straight out of the book's pages: damned souls with their heads turned backwards, or their hands lopped off, or their heads buried in lava. Whispers about sinners paying for their sins. A spectral figure in a birdlike Plague Mask. Creepy stuff! Alas, it doesn't last, and soon we're back among the usual assortment of government agencies, secret organizations, and double agents. Even Langdon's supposed erudition is dull here: he doesn't sort out symbols so much as he conducts history lessons. And then the world's lamest ethics lecture. (2016) — Matthew Lickona
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