'Inferno' Review: Despite Tom Hanks and Irrfan Khan, the film doesn't live up to expectations

What's it about:

If you're watching this film, you already know Robert Langdon (Hanks) and have watched the previous book-to-movie adaptations (The Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons based on the Dan Brown books). And if you haven't, well, here's the short version: He's a Cambridge scholar who usually helps out people in high places solve puzzles with the fate of the world usually hanging in the balance.
This one has him waking up and finding himself in a hospital in Florence, with cops shooting at him, even as he rushes to safety with the help of a doctor named Sienna Brooks (Jones), who takes her to his apartment. 
He has trouble remembering things, thanks to what appears to be a bullet graze wound to his head. He has hellish visions that bewilder and scare.
In all this, there's all kinds of intrigue involving a shadow organisation, Dante and his Divine Comedy, the cities of Florence, Venice and Istanbul as locations, the WHO doing field work that involves more than just collecting samples, all kinds of chases, the threat of an extinction-level event through a carefully planned pandemic and more.

What's hot:

I remember reading Inferno and imagining the words come alive as images in my head in what I can only describe as a good example of engaging pulp fiction in the garb of fun intellectualism. And for the most part, the movie and its pacing didn't disappoint. 
Robert Langdon is Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks is Robert Langdon. For better or worse, you can't imagine anyone else playing the character. But it is the chameleon-esque ease with which Irrfan Khan inhabits the unpredictable Provost, Harry Sims, who heads the Consortium, a shadow organisation with clients of all kinds (do the math) that really works. 
The dream sequences (the visions Langdon has) are well choreographed and shot. The background music is effective and the whole element or urgency comes across really well.

What's not:

There's no point taking a known name like Omar Sy and relegating him to a role like this and not giving him his due. Then there's the whole point about Zobrist's (Foster) plan. That whole elaborate setup, the deviousness of it all gets watered down on screen. Right down to that well-constructed climax and ending in the novel. Without giving away too much, let me say it isn't the same ending as the novel and that's a sore disappointment. The deviation is so pronounced and starkly different, it's downright unnecessary. 
Also, having WHO head Elizabeth Sinskey (Knudsen) having a personal relationship with Langdon, dilutes the intrigue somewhat. The way the film plays out, is something of a buzzkill.

What to do: 

Dan Brown fan or not, you're bound to feel a little disappointed, because Irrfan (accent aside) is brilliant (that confidence and will-do attitude we saw in Jurassic Park, comes unhinged in this one) at what he does and this movie, on the whole kind, doesn't do him justice. And let's not hide it, you bought a ticket to this one, because of the Tom Hanks-Ron Howard-Dan Brown combo. You only wish, the movie lived up to all your expectations and not just a few.

Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Tom Hanks, Irrfan Khan, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, Sides Babett Knudsen
Rating: ***