Dan Brown: Books vs Movies

Reading books is somewhat an obsolete task for some people in the world and they prefer to watch movies based on popular books. I, on the other hand love to do both i.e. read as well as watch movies. There is a procedural flowchart that I follow for movies which are based on books. I make an effort to finish the book first and then try to watch the film. This ensures that I understand the storyline completely and it also offers a scope for comparison between both.

Although, the backbone of the story always remains the same, there are some minute details that are removed entirely from the film. Now there are ‘n’ number of reasons for that like the duration of the film, production value, creative differences, controversial subjects, copyright issues, etc. Nevertheless, it’s always observed that whenever a full-blown visual representation of a particular books happens, the readers are not always satisfied but those who haven’t read the book feel connected to the characters as they are unaware about the storyline. The aspect of predictability is always missing for the viewers who are not readers.

Coming to Dan Brown, an author who has created the widely popular Robert Langdon series, got 3 out of 5 of his books from the series to be made into a movie. So today I’ll be talking about which one is better and most preferable.

The main protagonist of the series is Robert Langdon who is considered to be an expert in the field of religious iconology and symbology and teaches the same in Harvard University. These attributes or should I say skills lead him into the middle of something huge and how he uses his knowledge to get the world back to normalcy is the actual gist of all the books in the series.

The series starts with “Angels & Demons” followed by “The Da Vinci Code”, “The Lost Symbol”, 

“Inferno” which is succeeded by the last book “Origin”. Now without wasting any time I’ll honestly tell you guys that I have only read the 3 books that have been converted into a theatrical form. Although, there is a very good chance that I may end up reading “The Lost Symbol” and “Origin” as well.

1) Angels & Demons

Published in the year 2000, was the first book in the Robert Langdon series but the second one to be made into a film (2009). This book primarily deals with topics like Illuminati, Antimatter, Papal Conclave, etc. Dan Brown uses exclusive tourist attractions and secret locations by giving necessary insights about that place and how Robert Langdon reaches that place. This one is surely fast paced and is beautifully adapted by director Ron Howard who has also directed the other 2 movies.Angels & Demons is surely a book that pulls the right strings and the twist in the end is so unpredictable. The movie also tries to live up to the book and makes it cinematically watchable.

2) The Da Vinic Code

This is the 2^nd book in the Robert Langdon series and the first one to be adapted for the theatres by Ron Howard. Published in the year 2003, this book became a massive hit and after reading you actually understand the reason for its popularity. Unlike its predecessor, this isn’t that fast paced and on surface level deals with artistic history in general. From the name itself you can make out that the books will be heavily centred on the Leonardo Da Vinci and his work. Vitruvian Man, Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, etc are some of the finest works of Leonardo that have been written about in the book and shown in the movie as well. La Louvre, a museum in Paris, France is where everything starts. As I stated earlier that it is quite adequately paced but at times it does speed up and like Angels & Demons, this one has twists as well.

3) Inferno

Inferno is prominently the fastest paced adaptation out of the 3. This book genuinely deals with the concept of overpopulation and how it is becoming an issue in today’s world. A concept that finds its relevance in 2020 and the resemblance to the current situation is so uncanny. A big shout-out to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and the Map of Hell, which is a painting by Sandro Botticelli based on the Divine Comedy. Divine Comedy is divided into 3 parts namely Inferno, Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise). The main antagonist Bertrand Zobrist who is a transhumanist genius scientist and also a big Dante fan creates a virus that modifies the DNA by rendering 1/3^rd of the human infertile thereby reducing the population and bringing it to stable level. Well now when I think about it, Zobrist does seem like Thanos but with a little bit of brains and a better execution strategy. This book was published in 2013 and the movie was released in the year 2016.

Tom Hanks who plays the role of Robert Landon is pretty much a tailor-stitched role for an actor of such high calibre. Whenever you’re reading the book, you can actually imagine Tom Hanks talking or doing the things written in the book. He does it effortlessly with no doubt and that’s the mark of a fine actor.

The books are splendid and that is the reason why it has been adapted in the first place. The problem starts when a lot of facts and character arcs are just discarded in the film because of the reasons I’ve stated earlier. Now, according to me Inferno was the movie that suffered the most because of unnecessary complications and changes in the storyline which made no sense. For people who haven’t read the book, they might have felt good but for those who have read Inferno, we literally witnessed how brutally the story was murdered. No offense to the writers of the film but a lot of things were underplayed in the movie.

I’m not sure about this but Inferno was the last film adaptation of the Robert Langdon series and the experience was completely butchered. On the other hand, Ron Howard did create some magic with Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code and with time, I might forget Inferno.

All in all, it’s a great series and the adaptations are also quite good. So, if you’re an avid reader or even minutely interested in how Dan Brown connects history, mythology, art, etc with today’s problems then you must surely read the book. If reading 600 odd pages is not your cup of tea then you can any day choose to watch the theatrical adaptations.

Comment down which story from the Robert Langdon series was the best according to you.