When I first found myself singing to The Carpenters' Yesterday Once More back then, I knew I will so like the song and it will always remind me of the past times I have. Especially in the time of The Da Vinci Code movie release. I really need some peace and time to reflect on the past given all the mayhem and all that.
As my sister had been watching those M2M music videos on YouTube lately, she did sent me one of it through email. And I realised I had missed all those past times given I'm so into the whole The Da Vinci Code frenzy lately. To think, the novel was published three years ago and became an instant hit. It wasn't my fault I was only first aware of the whole thing last year when documentaries of it first began to surface, when the local media got wind of the phenomeon thanks to the enormous book sales here, when those heated discussion and controversy started to surface here...with me almost getting the book on my birthday last year! Yikes! To top it all off, it was the drama of the palagarism court trial in London earlier this year that brought to light plenty of things between Dan Brown and the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail (which was published in the 80s). And it almost saw the fate of the production of the movie's adaptation at that time hanging in a balance.
At that time I was already aware that Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou are going to play the lead roles. I was pleased with the selection of the main cast. I first remembered Audrey in her breakout movie role in Amelie. So when I first saw the name in terms of the cast for the movie adaptation, I was smiling away. Tom Hanks is already is one of the most recongisable faces in Hollywood. Audrey will be playing the gifted cryptologist Sophie, a change from her sweetie-pie image in Amelie which I remembered well. Even almost exclaiming how much she have changed since when there's few movie stills first surfaced early this year. Ron Howard being the director...I was like 'wow' because he directed the Academy Award-winning movie A Beautiful Mind! And I did watched that when it was on Channel 5 here then (despite I'm Mathematics-inclined as the movie is somehow about the life of mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr.). And even (Sir) Ian McKellen (being one of the most successful British actors because of having successful theatre productions and even on screen) taking the role of Sir Leigh Teabing, it's quite a great combination.
So, why are the critics out there saying all the not-so-nice things about the movie itself? I mean, the novel itself is already a phenomeon on its own. Look at the Harry Potter series. Yes, expectations grew with each instalment and yet, it never fails the fans each time. Especially the young kids who are reading it. And the more mature ones...ahem, me. Yet the critics tried to say it otherwise, or is it? Sometimes it's just a matter of perference.
Or I should say again, repeating what I say before here - 'Real audience always do matter!'. It has proven for the box-office sales of The Da Vinci Code. Imagine I heaved a sigh of relief quitely to myself as I was reading the report on CNA from AFP about the weekend box-office sales for the movie. Who is listening to the movie critics anyway? I was actually feeling a little smug as I read also the reports of the box-office sales in ST Life today as well. Though I know the movie will face potential strong competition in the weeks to come like X-Men 3, I can at least smug for now. Because you can imagine my movie ticket from the Lido cineplex on last Friday cost $9.50 and it's well spent. Double that amount because my father accompanied me to go watch and you will get the idea. Money well spent there...and we even contribute to the movie's success as well. Haha!
It may have send a raw nerve to maybe the conservative Christian community but then it's like I realised I was not alone in my views of the novel and the movie altogether. Saw the ST's Digital Life today and in the section about selection of blog postings from people reacting to the movie, it was not that bad. We are at least know what we are doing here. Singaporeans are becoming more mature.
It's not that I am against anyone, but sometimes, I feel like this is something I had been bottling inside me for years and cannot wait to say it all out at once when The Da Vinci Code movie premieres. In the end, it's all up to oneself to believe how much he/she wants to believe. Trying to condemn the movie is no use. Tolerance, please! The perception of Islam is already almost so bad (thanks to those terrorism news in the media) and it's making me shaking my head.
Now, since when religion taught us to be bad?
