The reference to "Cockamamie" theology was not about the study of religious symbols, but merely a joke about the specious reasoning and "according to the conclusions I've jumped to" leaps in logic that bog down the film so utterly.
As far as the question of being offended, the person who wrote that didn't read the review: we never said that. And we were not in a hole - we new exactly what the story was about, there were no surprises going in, except that we thoguht there would be at least an attempt at a logical presentation of the theories. I wanted to see interesting and solid reasoning behind them, and there wasn't any.
The point that it is just a novel, and a movie, is well founded - people are trying to make into something of religious significance, and no matter how you look at it, it's just not. It's pulp fiction.
But the fact remains (in my opinion, of course) that it was shoddy pulp fiction.
As for the other films that got better reviews, "Saw" notwhithstanding, some of those were great films. "Collateral" was an extremely well made thriler that was ACTUALLY THRILLING.
The number one criteria on which a critic should base the review is whether the film succeeds at what it is trying to be. "The Da VInci Code" did not come close, at any point, to succeeding as a thriller, because it was painfully dull and you did not care if a single character in it lived or died. That has nothing to do offending Christians - it has to do with alienating people whol pay to see a movie starring Tom Hanks and Directed by Ron Howard and something either entertaining or thoughtful, and instead get something plodding, bloated and unbelievable lazy. It has nothing whatsover to do with the subject matter - that's exactly the kind of willd, unsupported reasoning the character's use, which is why the stroy is so insipid. "Collateral" and yes, even "Hulk" (which may not have connected with audiences, but was appreciated by critics) got much, much better reviews all across the country than "Da Vinci Code" did - from critics of all religious beliefs.
