Arts & Life, Film & Television

Audiences are in-fer-no treat

With the heat cooling down and the cold rising thanks to the upcoming winter, “Inferno” is a film fitting to the season – you’ll most likely catch a cold from the droning plot and speedy cuts.

Director Ron Howard returns to the Robert Langdon series to helm another overtly religious tale adapted from Dan Brown’s latest work, “Inferno.” Howard, in all of his splendor and talent, finds the time to make scenes come and go so quickly that the audience couldn’t possibly care about the mistakes.

Tom Hanks, who loves paychecks more than artistic merits, once again stars as Harvard University professor of religious iconology Robert Langdon. He is apparently the only person in the entire world who can solve crimes involving Catholic overtones. This time around, the works of Dante Aligheri’s Inferno and map of Hell remain slightly prominent as the crime thriller becomes more focused on the dull intensity of the chases.

Like the previous films, “Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” Langdon’s expertise is needed again as he must deal with religious fanatics. In typical Langdon fashion, he must perform Bourne-like moves, seeking out several clues whilst being chased by a mysterious organization. Still, he uses his brain more than his muscle. The religious cults take a backseat as rich megalomaniac and Dante’s biggest fan, Zobrist (Ben Foster), wants to rid the world’s overpopulation by developing a plague; and only Langdon can find the virus before it’s too late.

As is tradition when regarding sequels starring a male lead and a different young woman to play sidekick, the third character to play Landon’s counterpart is ER doctor and apparent Dante expert Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones).

The duo search for the virus while being pursued by the leader and an agent from a mysterious security firm (Irrfan Kahn, Ana Ularu) and another leader and agent of the World Health Organization (Sidse Babett Knudsen, Omar Sy).

Langdon first meets the doctor after waking up from a possible head trauma with amnesia. With horrific visions of twisted heads and rashes clouding his judgement of who to trust, Langdon seeks out his original role in the scheme. In order to find Zobrist’s weapon, Langdon must head to several museums and observe clues within the classical art. It doesn’t take that much thinking to resolve the clues, as it can be seen right out in the open or wiped away with water.

Whereas the beautiful landmarks and great classical artists are present, the primary purpose these locations hold are simply to spice up the backdrops and to provide a wannabe-Indiana Jones thriller, but with none of the charm or charisma. All that’s left is a thriller and Catholic overtones that dumbs down the plot for the sake of simplifying itself, which is a far cry away from Langdon’s previous adventures.

Even though the moral and religious dilemmas are best presented in the earlier films, “Inferno’s” overall focus is on the redundant and underdeveloped message of the world’s overpopulation, which makes the villain’s goals an overused action movie cliche.

The problem solving and historical expertise took a backseat to being chased, going to museums to find clues, escaping locations through hidden passageways and more chases.

A quick Google search and a trip to the local museum is all Langdon needs to solve the mystery, which provides no real sense of thrill and feels like the audience is going on a wacky trip with their charismatic uncle – who happens to have a terrible haircut.

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