What does "[be] really out in front" mean?

Hello,

Larry King had an interview on CNN with the director of Angles and Demons Ron Howard and its leading actor Tom Hanks.

What follows is a part of the dialogue quoted from the transcript.

King: Ron, does controversy -- and this film has it -- help or hurt?

Howard: I think it helps. In fact, it's part of what's interesting about what Dan Brown writes is, you know, it's thought-provoking stuff.

Now, in "Da Vinci Code," really, the controversial ideas were driving the movie more than the action, more than the suspense. It really was about presenting those ideas and making the argument for them and stirring that thought.

This has its ideas, and it is smart and intelligent and interesting. But I would say that it's reversed. I think that the mystery, the code breaking, the thriller nature of it is, from a directorial standpoint, really out in front.

What does "[be] really out in front" mean?
Does it mean that "the mystery, the code breaking, the thriller nature of it" outdo the controversy per se?

Best Regards,