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Inferno (2016), PG-13, ★★1/2

What? Another Dan Brown adaptation?
Everybody has guilty pleasures when a topic is brought out as to what movies you do like or do not like. I have to admit I liked The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. I just cannot explain the reason why but I found the mystery surrounding the controversy regarding fictitious religious beliefs and stories a bit fascinating. Obviously, I know what the true stories lies in. But, sometimes, authors and/or filmmakers and writers have to conceive an idea to make an entertaining story and create an intriguing twist to the true facts. If you think the Indiana Jones movies are real, then, you are lost. Even though they are highly entertaining, you cannot make the notion that the Ark or the Holy Grail will be easy to find. This movie is over-the-top in its shallow and silly storyline and even though there are some thrills in its frenetic storyline, the movie is riddled with holes and filmmaking tricks that got tiresome.

Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) has awakened from a coma in a hospital in Florence, Italy with no recollection of what has transpired in the past few days. Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) is one of the doctors that is caring for him and she reveals that he is suffering from amnesia from a bullet wound to the head. However, there is an officer in disguise who is revealed to be an assassin named Vayentha (Ana Ularu) who shoots the doctor while heading down the hall. Sienna helps Robert escape and they flee to her apartment. 

When they are at her apartment, they both find a miniature image projector that show a modified version of the Map of Hell, which is based on Dante's Inferno. They realize that it is a clue that is on a trail left by billionaire geneticist, Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), who committed suicide after being chased by government agents. Robert and Sienna figure out that Inferno is a virus that could potentially destroy the world's population. They have to find the virus and make sure it is not in the wrong hands. 

Another race against time.
Tom Hanks has the best haircut of the three and he is a great actor. But, I felt like Ron Howard, the director, uses so much effects especially when he is hallucinating or being tackled that it got so distracting and it interfered with the fun of the whole story. It slowed down the frenetic pacing a bit. There are a holes in the story which reveals spoilers that links to characters that I cannot understand how or why the virus was created and what was the reason behind it. It is mostly an evil scheme and it was not as fun. It is just an element to drive the story ahead. Felicity Jones is competent as the doctor, Omar Sy was all right, Sidse Knudsen is good as the head of the W.H.O, but it is cool to see Irrfan Khan playing a mysterious character that can twist the story a little bit. 

It is not that twist I'm talking about but there's another twist that actually worked that I did not see coming because it made a bit of sense but I still distracted with the holes as to why the scheme was set up to annihilate most of the population. I think Ron Howard and Tom Hanks need to quit this trilogy because it is getting a bit overwrought in its self-seriousness with the material and it should have been a bit more corny. I still like Hans Zimmer's score, which is the best component of the trilogy, that the makes the films exciting. However, I sort of enjoyed it because of its silly plot and its twists along the way in the mystery but it is equally a cable watch. 

**1/2


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