da vinci code

I'm usually not one to go in for the "conspiracy theory" style of cultural criticism. So the point I want to make isn't really of the "conspiracy" variety. Nonetheless I was reading this morning about the critical backlash against the Da Vinci Code now that it has been screened at Cannes. Now I was tempted to think that this is just the standard fare of critical cultural elitism attacking a low-brow book being made into a positively surley browed movie. A critic on the BBC points out how the movie is cloaked in armor due the popularity of the books (videogame culture has a great term for this phenomenon: "fanboy"). Certainly the movie would seem to occasion a kind of critical muscle flexing, allowing critics to vent their anger at the culture industry against a product whose revenues won't really suffer because of it (and of course there is no escape from this perverse loop). But then I as I thought about it I think these negative reviews are actually something much more savvy. In a way they are a rearguard action against the film's protestors. It is as if these critics as saying, "This is just a cheap piece of lowbrow entertainment with no serious message. You are allowed to go enjoy it without any concern regarding the content." So, really these critics are forming a protective armor of their own around the movie. Well, I at least feel relieved that I can go enjoy the film without any higher imperatives bearing down on me.