Review: Inferno

Since the announcement that Ron Howard’s next collaboration with Tom Hanks was going to be a movie adaptation of Inferno, the fourth book in the Robert Langdon series, I have been excited. Like many, I had grown accustomed to the formula we saw in The Da Vinci Code as well as Angels and Demons, so I was looking forward to seeing a lot of that be turned on its head.

Now, on the other side of seeing the movie, it must be said that they could have kept more of the book intact as without the elements they cut out, we are straying far too close to the formula again.

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Robert Langdon (Hanks) wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the last two days. He is experiencing retrograde amnesia due to a hit on the head while also seeing visions of what can only be described as hell – rivers of blood, tormented bodies and a mysterious, shrouded woman. As he comes to, he is attacked by an assassin dressed as a policewoman. It is only because of the quick action of his doctor Sienna (Felicity Jones) that he survives.

After the pair makes it back to her apartment, they try to figure out what he has been doing for the last two days, why he has a head wound and what an assassin would want with him. Throughout the early section of the movie, unlike the previous Langdon outings, Robert is not the brains – his are well and truly scrambled. He has to rely on Sienna and her ingenuity – a welcome change to proceedings.

It turns out that he is in Florence to find a plague that a wealthy biotechnologist, Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) is threatening to unleash upon the world. Zobrist fears overpopulation and believes that he must take drastic action to avoid an extinction level event. At the beginning of the movie, he throws himself from a bell tower rather than be captured so that his plan can proceed. However, he lays out clues for his followers so that they can find out where the plague is located and ensure its safety.

As the pair begin to follow the trail, they are pursued by agents from the World Health Organisation as well as by a private security firm known only as the Consortium. This is where we are introduced to The Provost (Irrfan Khan), their charismatic leader – one of the movie’s highlights. He is one of the most interesting characters in the film, with some of the best lines and moments. Khan is a joy to watch, and he clearly has fun in the role.

As the movie progresses, we begin to fall back into the usual tropes of the Langdon movies. Robert becomes Mr Exposition again as all of the pieces start to fall into place. While Hanks is given more to do in Inferno, successfully selling the confused and distracted head trauma victim, it feels like he is largely going through the motions.

There is also a major deviation from the book that is disappointing. Normally, I’m not one to complain about changes between adaptations and their sources, but in this case, the movie loses out here. Without this particular element, it feels like the movie is even more formulaic than it should be. To explain further would lead to spoilers so I will leave it at that.

Inferno starts promisingly but quickly becomes a run-of-the-mill thriller. Should Howard and Hanks choose to take on The Lost Symbol, I hope they try to take more risks with the structure or at least give Hanks more to do. While it is by no means the worst movie in the franchise, I am disappointed it is also not the best, as it could have been.