Inferno is the third installment of the movie series based off the popular book series written by Dan Brown, following The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The series – known for its plot twists, religious references, complex storylines, grotesque characters and Tom Hanks – sets the standards high for its newest installment.

Viewers hoping for a fresh story that follows the action and disorientating plot of the book were vastly disappointed. The movie felt like I was watching a poor man’s rerun of the previous installments – including the cheesy one liners, young female sidekick, textbook bad-guy and overplayed running out of time scenario.

The movie lost what unique religious flame it had before that separated it from a Bond or Bourne movie, and fell into the trap of a simple against the clock plot. The characters, including the main character professor Robert Langdon (Hanks) lost depth and seemed like a nerdier Indiana Jones.

The movie did a decent job of bringing the occasional plot twists, but fell short of its own big ending, as if the producers and directors were scared of rocking the boat. The plot was simple and easy to understand without being polluted by side plots, yet still intriguing and complex towards overpopulation.

The approach the book, “Inferno,” took towards the taboo subject of overpopulation helped fill the shoes of the previous cult classic books, and the filmmakers almost completely threw it out the window by drastically changing the ending.

The point of the novel was to comment on the problem of overpopulation, and provide a hypothetical and indirect solution. What the movie accomplished was an underwhelming last hurrah for Tom Hank’s action movie career.

When the curtain closes the film’s conflict is left unresolved, and the brilliant and taboo proposal to end overpopulation Brown made in the novel is sacrificed in exchange for the happy Hollywood ending. Directors, producers, and writers have done this time and time again to many book-movie adaptations just like in Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend and now to Brown’s Inferno.

If you’re looking to see Tom Hanks star in one last cheesy thriller, or you’re a die hard fan of Dan Brown books, then enjoy your show. But if you’re looking to get the intelligent and thought provoking fix that you got from The Da Vinci Code, then go read the book.