Rated PG-13

Inferno is the third in a trilogy of films based off of the successful novels written by Dan Brown. The DaVinci Code was the first film released in 2006 and Angels and Demons was the second, released in 2009. Neither of the first two films was outstanding, but Inferno certainly is the stinker of the three. Ron Howard is the director of Inferno, just as he was of the first two films, but he is unable to capitalize on any of the near-end-of-the-world possible excitement that the screenplay almost delivers.

Tom Hanks (recently of Sully and Bridge of Spies) once again stars in the lead role as Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist whose vast knowledge and intelligence often land him in predicaments where he is relied upon to unravel mysteries and save lives. At the beginning of Inferno, Robert wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy, completely unaware of the details of how he arrived there. His doctor, a young woman named Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones of The Theory of Everything and Like Crazy), informs him that he is suffering from amnesia brought on by a serious head wound. She is in the process of further informing him of the little she knows, when an Italian police officer storms into the hospital and begins shooting at them.

Robert and Sienna manage to narrowly escape and they take refuge at Sienna’s apartment. There, they begin to search for clues in Robert’s slowly returning memory that can help them make sense of who is after him and why. The biggest clue they have to work off of is an unusual small tube that they discover in Robert’s suit coat pocket. Inside of it is a device that projects an image of Inferno, the beginning of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem from the 14th century. Robert quickly notices that there are changes that have been made to the image and he is able to unscramble from the changes a secret message hidden in an anagram. From there, the race is on for Robert and Sienna as they move across Europe from clue to clue, hoping to unravel the mystery.

Their clues point them in the direction of a recently deceased extremist billionaire named Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster of Warcraft: The Beginning and Pandorum) who believed that there are too many people in the world and that the only way to avoid future suffering by the human race is to eliminate a huge portion of the world’s current population. It seems that Zobrist created a plague designed to kill off millions of people and he has planted it in a container set to detonate in the very near future.

As Robert and Sienna scramble to outrun the clock and find the location of Zobrist’s plague-inducing bomb, they are also scrambling to avoid being captured by any of the numerous people who are chasing them around Europe including a questionable man named Christoph Bouchard (Omar Sy of X Men: Days of Future Past and Jurassic World), a former love interest of Robert’s and head of the World Health Organization named Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudsen of The Duke of Burgundy and TV’s Westworld), and a mysterious businessman named Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan of Life of Pi and Jurassic World).

While the plot is ridiculously predictable and the ending is cliché, one of the film’s strong points is its beautiful scenery. The up-close views of Florence, Venice, and Istanbul are remarkable. In addition, there is at least some suspense surrounding the main cast of characters. It is unclear for a while who is after Robert to help him and who is after Robert to hurt him. Other than the scenery and a short-lived who-done-it, though, Inferno is a disappointing thriller, both for viewers of the film who have read the book and those who have not.

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