I doubt very many people are blogging about this subject, but I decided to anyway. I figure it could use the publicity. So, while you may not have heard anything about this, here’s the news: The motion picture version of The Da Vinci Code opened this past weekend.

On Saturday, I took my daughter to a birthday party at a local movie theater. Instead of this movie - which six and seven year olds would be uninterested in - they saw an animated film with talking animals, I believe (that’s a safe guess - most kids films are animated and feature talking animals). What I got to see, though, was a group of local folks (whom I assumed to be Christians) picketing the theater. I didn’t get to see many of the signs, and the only one I can remember contained the “blasphemy” written in large red letters. I suspected that this was due to the theater showing The Da Vinci Code, and not the talking animals movie. And they weren’t even anywhere near the theater. I suppose the theater dictated where they were allowed to congregate, and it was at the far edge of the parking lot, away from the primary entrances. Therefore, not a lot of people were seeing their signs to begin with. The theater is new since I lived here before, and I’ve only been there once before, and thus the only reason I saw them at all is because I made wrong turn.

I acknowledge that I’m not really the boycott or picketing type. I just don’t believe that it often does any good, and possibly does harm. I seriously doubt that there were very many people who, on their way to see the movie, saw the people with the signs and changed their mind. My opinion is that they might better have served those they were attempting to turn away by either reading the book or seeing the movie, and then discussing with others why they believe Dan Brown - the author of the novel The Da Vinci Code - is wrong.

If you’ve read the book - as I did couple of years ago - it’s easy to see from the opening page that while Brown wrote a fiction book, he actually believes that what he is writing about is based on fact. He believes it’s true. Now, in my opinion, it was not a particularly great book. Not because I disagree with what Brown espouses in the book, but because large chunks of it were pretty boring. It appears Brown wrote down what he believes, and then wrote in a few characters to state those beliefs, then threw in a little action around it. Basically, it was a series of lectures, with some “bad guys chasing the good guys” thrown in to break up the monotony. I’m convinced had it not been controversial, we would have never heard of it. But what Brown writes about in the book is not simply fiction to be easily dismissed - it’s what Brown believes and, evidently, people are believing him. That seems like reason enough to leave the picketing behind and try to talk to people about it instead.

As for the movie itself, I expected a lot. With Ron Howard behind a film, you expect good things. You think of Apollo 13 or A Beautiful Mind. With Tom Hanks starring in a film, you also expect good things. You think of Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan. With both of them together, I would expect very good things (although I never have been a huge fan of Splash.) Nevertheless, when you have an international best-seller that sold millions of copies, and one of the best directors and best actors out there involved, you have high expectations. My thought was that maybe these two can do more with the film than Brown did with the book.

But, so far, it appears I may have been wrong. The film has not been receiving great reviews. Evidently, laughter could be heard among viewers at the Cannes Film Festival during scenes which were not intended to be humorous. I’ve never been one to pay a lot of attention to movie critics, but even when critics give negative reviews, it’s not often that you also hear that they were laughing out loud during dramatic scenes. That just can’t be a good sign.

One story stated that the movie would need to do well since the first two “blockbusters” for this summer have not. According to this article, Poseidon - which is a remake - apparently fell short of expectations during it’s opening week. And, not surprisingly, Mission Impossible III did as well. This movie had two black marks against it - it’s got “III” in the title, and it stars Tom Cruise, whom I believe the general public sees as more of a nut every day. But it appears that Da Vinci did have the biggest weekend opening of the year. I’m not sure if it met the expectations or not, but I guess if you’re the best of the year so far, that’s something.

Many people are asking Christians if they’ll see the film.  As for me, yes, I will.  Regardless of not-so-great reviews and the fact that I didn’t think the book was very good, either, I will see the movie eventually. Anytime I read a book and it becomes a film, I like to see it (unless the book was exceptionally bad.) However, I plan to wait for a DVD or cable rental, instead of paying much more at the theater. Since I’ve read the book, I already know the story, so I’m not in a big hurry to see the film. There are only a handful of movies I’m willing to pay more than a few bucks to see. I’m just not convinced that The Da Vinci Code is one of them.