Well, it seems those who wanted to see Tom Hanks take on the legendary role of Robert Langdon won’t have to wait much longer as two new trailers for Ron Howard’s Inferno have finally arrived. It’s interesting to note that while they were both huge draws at the box office, both film adaptations of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons were not too well received by critics. The Da Vinci Code currently holds a 25% approval rating on RottenTomatoes.com, with Angels & Demons only being slightly better received at 37%.
Personally, I thought they were both not only good but also rather engaging and before anyone asks, I have read both books. Are the books better? Of course, they are but that’s the case with just about every adaptation. Did they leave things out? Of course, they did, but what people don’t realize is that cuts are necessary when adapting to film. You can’t fit every last detail. Not to mention, what works in a book may not necessarily work on film so filmmakers are sometimes forced to cherry-pick some of the best scenes while leaving others out. Yes, I am also aware that Angels & Demons takes place before The Da Vinci Code in the timeline of the books. However, doing The Da Vinci Code first was a smart move for the studio, as the book receive far more praise and controversy than Angels & Demons. It was a better choice from a marketing standpoint. I don’t know, I personally liked them both, I loved Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon and am hyped as hell for these new trailers. Let’s Have a look at the first:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbNBB1D37U8[/embedyt]
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I actually haven’t read the book that this entry is based on, so I had no idea what to expect in the trailer. According to Deadline, the official premise for Inferno reads as such; “Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital with amnesia. He teams up with Sienna Brooks, the doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories and prevent a madman from releasing a global plague connected to Dante’s Inferno.”
While the first film focused on The Knights Templar and the second film revolved around The Illuminati & The Vatican, this film seems to be digging its claws into Dante’s Inferno. In Dante’s original poem, The Divine Comedy, Hell (Inferno) is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the earth. Potentially, this could be a cool setup to an interesting mystery for the character of Robert Langdon. With everything he’s faced in the past, the stakes seem as though they will be higher this time around. How much of his memory has Robert Langdon lost? We don’t know so we can’t really guess what to expect. Based on this trailer though, his amnesia doesn’t seem to be a huge factor as we see him still able to decode symbols and anagrams. But who knows? Maybe it will be interesting. Let’s watch the second trailer:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31tMiHv539k[/embedyt]
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From this second trailer, more about the mystery is revealed. We saw Ben Foster (The Punisher, The Mechanic) die in the beginning of the first trailer (Or at least he was thrown off a building. Not sure how he would survive that one) and it seems his character will play an intricate role based on the international trailer. We had already heard his monologue in the last one about a switch that will kill half the people on earth if pulled but here he appears to be saying this directly to Langdon. Yes, him telling Langdon that he is “Humanity’s Final Hope” is a pretty cheap line but, hopefully, that line was made for the trailer. Langdon is a wonderful character but he is not Jesus. We also see Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks (played by Felicity Jones) investigating Foster’s character. We learn that he is a billionaire, he needed someone to take action (what action, I wonder?) and that he has left a map (a puzzle) for Langdon to solve in order to stop a plague.
So far, there is a lot to get excited about. It should be fun seeing Tom Hanks play the character again, solving puzzles and riddles to save the world and uncover a mystery. It’s noteworthy that Dan Brown’s book, The Lost Symbol, was originally going to be made instead of this film, with Ron Howard merely producing and Mark Romanek set to direct. Writer Danny Strong (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 / The Butler) had even been hired to write the project. However, the project seems to have been put on the back-burner indefinitely. Rumor has it that the decision was made due to the plot of The Lost Symbol being too close to that of National Treasure. As someone whose read The Lost Symbol, I can see it to an extent.
Inferno is directed by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park) and is set to be release on October 28, 2016.
What do you think of the trailers? be sure to let us know in the comments below and please stick around for more articles right here at TheNerdStash.com.
