For many it has been a long wait. But now the countless millions of  readers who bought Dan Brown¡¦s The Da Vinci Code ¡V an  archaeological adventure novel with a theological twist ¡V will finally see the story rendered in celluloid. Very few novels approach the echelons of Brown¡¦s mega-million sales, or inspire such avid devotion in their readership, and a big-budget Hollywood adaptation was inevitable. But has director Ron Howard delivered?

World class American Symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) is visiting Paris to promote the release of his new book. His arrival coincides with the brutal (and apparently ritualistic) murder of his life-long friend Jacques Sauniere, a curator at the Louvre. It is not long before the French police, headed up by Captain Bezu Fache (Reno), haul Langdon in for questioning. Luckily Sauniere¡¦s grand-daughter, the angelic Sophie Neveu (Tautou), turns up to save the day, and after a hair-raising chase across Paris, Langdon and Neveu begin to realise that there is a lot more her grand-father¡¦s death than meets the eye. With killer monk Silas (Bettany) hot on their heals, Neveu and Langdon are caught in a race against time, solving a series of ancient puzzles in order to unravel one of the greatest cover-ups in human history.  As they follow the clues from Paris to London, and finally Scotland, it is revealed that Sauniere was one of the core members of the Priory of Sion, a mysterious religious cult charged with the protection of the Holy Grail. With the help of  avuncular Grail enthusiast Sir Leigh Teabling (McKellen), the pair discover not only the location of the prized treasure, but a secret far greater.

While this film has an indisputable big-budget sheen, and faithfully follows the plot of the novel, it misses out a lot of the puzzle-solving and multi-layered complexity that made Brown¡¦s book such a page-turner. In this film, everything is sacrificed for narrative drive and action, making the story¡¦s twists and turns easier to spot. More than that, with a great many clues and puzzles absent, the central strand of the story starts to look a little hokey and far-fetched. With legions of Da Vinci Code fans poised to hit the cinemas on the film¡¦s release, there was never any danger of this film failing to make a dent at the box-office. What Brown¡¦s vast readership will make of it when they get there is another matter entirely. Nevertheless, The Da Vinci Code is an enjoyable enough action adventure film; atypical blockbuster fare, replete with glossy locations, fast-paced action sequences and a heavyweight ensemble cast. Bettany makes for a thoroughly menacing Silas, and the ever-reliable McKellen plays Teabling with relish, providing much needed bombast and comic relief. This makes up for the underused Reno and Molina, who nonetheless carry off their roles with the required panache. All in all, an unashamed Big Summer Movie.