Vatican review pans ‘Code’ film

“The Da Vinci Code” film was “much ado about nothing” and the fuss surrounding it was no more than a clever marketing strategy to increase sales at the box office, the Vatican newspaper wrote in a review published Tuesday.

In fact, after a catchy beginning, the film version of Dan Brown’s novel is dull to watch and has little to recommend it, L’Osservatore Romano said.

The film and book have angered church leaders worldwide with their premise that Jesus married and fathered a child and their depiction of the conservative Catholic movement, Opus Dei, as a murderous cult.

Although some religious leaders have called for a boycott of the film, Opus Dei has resisted a boycott, saying instead that the film provides an opportunity to generate interest in Christianity.

The ensuing publicity “is probably the most gigantic marketing strategy of a book and a film seen in the last few decades,” the newspaper said in its review.

Meanwhile, “The Da Vinci Code” has been pulled from cinemas in Belarus’ capital of Minsk after only four days because Christian groups in the ex-Soviet state complained that it was offensive, the state film distributor said Tuesday.