Rated: PG-13 | Running Time: 122 Minutes
From: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray & DVD: January 24, 2017
Get it via : Amazon
There are a lot of “Why?”’s in “Inferno.” Sure, you could ask: Why can’t the people with a whole lot of technology, including a drone, catch two people running on foot? Or you could ask: Why are the dudes with the guns in this cavern no where near the action? However, there are no more important wonderings than “Why are there so many chases?” and “Why did they have such a convoluted ending?”
The movie is “Inferno,” the third following “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” and for me the movie folks seemed to forget that the clues were the fun to this franchise, not the chases.
As it is, the good Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) finds himself in a hospital with a loss of memory of recent events but a plethora of visions of the future. His doctor, Sienna (Felicity Jones) is there to assist him, and even helps him escape from the hospital when a cop shows up looking to try and kill Langdon.
We quickly learn that the eccentric billionaire, Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), believes that in order to save humanity we must kill of most of the humans, and what better way to do this than with a plague. Much like many a maniac, instead of simply going to a crowded place, say an airport, and releasing this plague, there is this convoluted set of clues to get to the virus in order to either contain it, or release it.
This is where Langdon comes in.
It appears that the clues to finding the plague revolve around Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and his visions of the levels of hell, and of course Langdon, and even Sienna, appear to be experts in Dante.
With a plague readily available to wipe out millions there is the race by the terrorists to find it, the race by the World Health Organization to find it, and the race by the followers of Zobrist to fulfill his vision as good old Bertrand has found himself on the run, and dead.
And he wasn’t the only one running.
Nope, Langdon and Sienna find themselves running, running through crowded streets, through trains, through churches, through landmarks, and through gardens, yet no one seems to be able to catch them.
The problem is that with all of the chasing what gets lost is what made a movie like “The Da Vinci Code” so memorable: The puzzle.
Sure, Langdon has to put together a whole lot of pieces, which is especially tough considering his recent memory loss, but his “discovery” kept getting lost for me as suddenly it is “We have to go!”
As if all of this running wasn’t enough, let’s throw in the proverbial, surprise plot twist, a non-suspenseful ending that was all over the place, and again, police everywhere but where they were needed. Let’s not forget the way-long sentimental ending that we find out was even way-longer on the deleted scene featurette.
I will admit that possibly part of the difficulty in getting sucked into a movie like “Inferno,” as opposed to “The Da Vinci Code,” is that the Da Vinci one was built around much more common Christian stories while “Inferno” revolves around the works of a poet most people probably hated when they had to read it in high school or college.
I believe I may have rambled about the movie a little too long now, so let’s just wrap things up with my giving “Inferno” 2 1/2 stars out of 5. Sadly the series of films, from “The Da Vinci Code” to “Angels and Demons” to “Inferno” have steadily gone downhill with each iteration, but I suppose if you just want a lot of chasing with some puzzles thrown in for good measure, this one should keep you occupied for a couple of hours.
As far as the Blu-ray, if you do find yourself fascinated by the film and its characters there are a batch of featurettes that give some of the most in-depth analysis of the likes of Langdon, Sofia, and the crazy billionaire Zobrist, so go ahead and give them a whirl. You also get a nice “How did they make those visions of hell?” extra,
Deleted scenes? Yup, the Blu-ray has a lot of them, most best deleted, but the “Chase Through Boboli Gardens” made things make a hell of a lot more sense. Oddly enough the “Chase Through Boboli Gardens” had more hiding than chasing.
That’s it for this one! L8R!!