To see or not to see...that is the question

So, the Da Vinci Code finally opened this weekend (but not in Elliot Lake for another week or two). The question is will you see it or not? What do you think of it all? After all the build-up and controversy, it seems that there are mixed reactions to the movie:

"...a small, surprisingly ordinary movie." (Ty Burr, Boston Globe)
"How can a film contain so many clues yet remain utterly clueless?" (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune)
"...an unwieldy, bloated melodrama." (Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter)
"...a dreary, droning, dull-witted adaptation..." (Pete Travers, Rolling Stone)
"Dan Brown's novel is utterly preposterous; Ron Howard's movie is preposterously entertaining." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
"The film is faithful enough, but it's hard to imagine it making many converts." (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly)
"The most startling revelation in the movie version of The Da Vinci Code is the way it soft-pedals its provocative premise and borders on tedium." (Claudia Puig, USA Today)

A Vatican cardinal has called for a boycott of the picture, and the Indian government said it would show the movie to Christian groups before clearing its release. In the mainly Catholic Philippines censors gave it an "adult only" rating. Such action probably guarantesds that more people will want to see it (was nothing learned from similar things happening around the release of The Last Temptation of Christ, The Life of Brian, etc., etc...).

In France, the Catholic Church was trying to stay above the fray. "It's only a film. There are more serious things happening in the world," said Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco, head of the communication council of the Conference of French Bishops. He added that the church was against any violent protest action against the film and declined to admonish or approve the feature. "I'm not going to talk about the film before I see it," he told AFP.

Ron Howard and Tom Hanks defended the film at a news conference, saying it was a piece of fiction. British actor Alfred Molina, who plays a Machiavellian bishop in the movie, blamed the media for creating controversy where there was little or none.

I don't think, as Christians, that we should ignore the movie or just dismiss it out of hand. It is a great opportunity for conversation and discussion. If we believe it is fiction then we should be ready to share what we see as the truth, not in a confrontational way, but by joining in the discussion. It also gives us the opportunity to re-examine our own beliefs, which is never a bad thing.