The third film based on Dan Brown’s novels, Inferno begins with Harvard professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) waking up in a Florence hospital, amnesiac and plagued by apocalyptic visions. When he’s targeted for assassination, Langdon escapes with the help of Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) and must uncover a deep conspiracy that threatens the fate of the world.

For whatever reason, these adaptations never seem to work. Both The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons failed to impress me despite the presence of a capable director in Ron Howard and all-star casts led by one of the greatest actors alive, Tom Hanks. Inferno looked no different. Nothing got me excited about it, not even some inspired casting choices (Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Ben Foster). It just looked like a plot I’d seen before with a character I don’t care about.

Sure enough, I was totally right.

An engaging mystery thriller needs a plot that the audience can follow but still keeps them in the dark about the twists and turns. With that in mind, Inferno fails as a mystery. I could see most of the twists coming from a mile away and they were so far-fetched that the movie lost all credibility. The worst part is the film doesn’t even try to hide the twists; they’re basically spelled out for the ten-year-olds who, almost certainly, aren’t in the theater.

In addition, having Langdon flash back between reality and these horrible Dante’s Inferno-style visions was a mistake. At their heart, these movies are thoroughly conventional mysteries and when you mix that with a radically different style it’s very hard to make it work. The visions often come out of nowhere and feel like something out of Jacob’s Ladder rather than the Da Vinci Code, leaving the movie feeling very disjointed. I can see why the visions seemed like a good idea in development and the imagery is interesting, but they were poorly executed in a story that didn’t call for them.

The cast perform their roles well despite the lackluster material. Tom Hanks feeling more comfortable in the role after a couple of outings. Oscar-nominee Felicity Jones (Like Crazy, The Theory of Everything and the upcoming Star Wars film Rogue One) is also a welcome addition, adding a lot of juice to a fairly uninteresting character.

I hate to say this, but I honestly don’t see why this movie was made. The books aren’t nearly the phenomenon they once were, Angels and Demons suffered a huge drop-off in grosses after the Da Vinci Code and the film is sure to be clobbered next weekend by Doctor Strange. Oh well. At least in the coming weeks, we get Doctor Strange, Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Loving and a number of other movies far more worth your time and money.

Grade: C