Sometimes I seem to find myself out of step with other viewers; judging from many poor reviews of Inferno I have seen this is one of those times. Perhaps it is because I wasn’t overly impressed with The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons, but I feel Inferno is, rather easily, the best film of the trilogy. I was consistently surprised and entertained by its zigzags.
Inferno posits a plan by young billionaire Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) to reduce Earth’s human population through a virus before the planet is permanently ruined. Only professional symbologist and historian Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) can stop the madness. But is it madness? To its credit, Ron Howard’s film (and, I assume, Dan Brown’s book) provides a great deal of credence and necessity to the horrifying notion of “culling the herd.” It’s more than a bit silly for Zobrist to leave a path for someone to be able to follow and stop (or accelerate) his diabolical plan, but that’s why the movie exists.
Like the earlier films (all directed by Ron Howard), Inferno is a complicated European puzzle utilizing history and myth as keys to resolve modern mysteries and avert apocalypses. I do find it strange that Langdon is the only character, as far as I can tell, who is in more than one of these adventures; it’s as if he has no close friends or associates to help him out. Can you imagine Indiana Jones without Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) or Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott)? I think the series suffers because of Langdon’s isolation. Even so, this film works well with Langdon’s lack of aid from anyone he can trust. The multiple flashbacks, visions of devastation and amnesia are very well handled by Howard, making the mystery exciting and surprising.
The conclusion is too protracted to be truly thrilling (and differs from the book, as I understand it, which infuriates its fans). But after being disappointed in the first two movies I was pleased with this one, partly because Langdon is shown to be fallible. The stakes are high, the plotting is complex, the acting is solid and the storytelling is dynamic. For my money this is the best of the series. ☆ ☆ ☆. 20 November 2016.