Inferno (2016)
★★ — Inferno (2016)
By 2016, the Robert Langdon franchise had already run its course for many viewers, but Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment pressed on regardless. Inferno is the third film in the series adapting Dan Brown's best-selling novels, arriving a full decade after The Da Vinci Code first brought the cryptologist professor to cinemas and seven years after its follow-up. The source novel, published in 2013, leans into the imagery and themes of Dante Alighieri's fourteenth-century epic poem as its central conceit, using Europe's most storied cities as both backdrop and puzzle box. Florence, Venice and Istanbul were all used as genuine filming locations, giving the production a sense of scale that its studio budget could support. The film runs to 122 minutes and carries the tagline "His greatest challenge. Humanity's last hope." which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the register it is pitching for.
Ron Howard returns to the director's chair, as he did for both previous Langdon entries. Howard is a director of broad commercial range, from the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind to the cheerfully chaotic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and he is nobody's idea of a slouch behind the camera. He knows how to keep a frame busy and a plot moving, which makes it all the more interesting (and perhaps telling) when the results feel mechanical. The screenplay was written by David Koepp, who also adapted Angels and Demons for the same franchise, so there is a degree of institutional continuity here, for better or worse.
Tom Hanks reprises the role of Robert Langdon for the third time, bringing his customary likability to a character who largely functions as a vehicle for plot exposition. Alongside him, Felicity Jones plays the doctor who finds Langdon disoriented and amnesiac in a Florence hospital and is quickly pulled into the chase. Jones had already earned considerable attention for her work in other projects before this, and her casting felt like a genuine coup at the time. The supporting cast adds considerable interest on paper: Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan and Sidse Babett Knudsen all appear, bringing between them a range of screen presence and international credibility that a globe-trotting thriller should, in theory, benefit from enormously.
Inferno (2016) wraps up the Robert Langdon trilogy with a whimper rather than a bang, a visually slick but narratively hollow thriller that squanders its potential at every turn. Based on Dan Brown’s increasingly far-fetched novel, it follows Langdon (Tom Hanks, still game despite the material) as he wakes up with amnesia and must stop a globalist madman from unleashing a virus to cull half the human population, all inspired by Dante’s Inferno. The concept could’ve been chilling, even provocative, but the execution is clunky, rushed, and devoid of real tension. The story feels like a recycled version of the previous films (cryptic clues, European landmarks, shadowy organizations) but without the intrigue or intellectual spark. The pacing lurches from one set piece to the next, the dialogue is stilted, and the villain’s motivation is cartoonish, delivered with zero subtlety. Even the grand reveal about the virus and its “solution” lands with a thud, lacking emotional or ethical weight. Visually, it’s polished (Venice, Florence, Istanbul look stunning) but the overuse of CGI dream sequences and frantic editing makes it feel more like a video game cutscene than a film. Felicity Jones is underused as the female lead, and the chemistry between her and Hanks is nonexistent. Beneath average, forgettable, and a disappointing end to a once-promising series. It’s not offensive, just dull. A film that mistakes confusion for mystery and spectacle for meaning. Langdon deserved better. So did we.
And that, really, is the frustration I keep coming back to. The ingredients were all there: a confident director who knows this material, a lead actor giving it genuine effort, stunning locations, and a cast with real depth on the margins. When a film with all of that still manages to feel like a chore to sit through, it says something about how much the script and the fundamental conception matter. I have a soft spot for a good mystery thriller, and films that use real historical art and architecture as their playground ought to be right in my wheelhouse. But there is a version of this film that actually earns its running time, and we did not get it. Sometimes a franchise outstays its welcome not with a crash, but with a slow fade to grey.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2016 | Watched: 2025-10-04
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Inferno (2016) on YouTube
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More from Ron Howard: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) · Angels & Demons (2009) · The Da Vinci Code (2006) · A Beautiful Mind (2001)
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More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)
