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Review: 'Angels & Demons' Casts Confusing Spell
'DaVinci Code' Follow-Up More Action Than Thriller
POSTED: 7:05 am CDT May 15, 2009
'Angels & Demons' (PG-13)
(out of four)Imagine a movie where antimatter is at the core of a fight between the Illuminatis and the Vatican, where Rome while not built in a day could get blown up in minutes, and where the science of symbology turns a professor into a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.So surrounds the plot of Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons," the prequel to the best-selling author's Oprah book hit "The DaVinci Code." The movie version, unlike the book, however, is set after "The DaVinci Code." That is why "Angels & Demons" stands on its own, so no worries if you haven't seen "Code" -- that isn't the reason you'll be lost.The beginning of the film is probably the most confusing. Physicists hover over a canister of antimatter particles that they've created and trapped at the CERN particle physics facility, a real laboratory in Switzerland that gave Brown the idea for his story. Ron Howard's direction has us winding around the facility in a tube, following the canister throughout the lab.When it finally reaches its resting place, moments later the physicist charged with guarding it is found bloodied, his eye removed (a bit graphic for this PG-13 rating). Flash forward to a pool at Harvard University, where a member of the Vatican police force has been sent to fetch Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a professor with a passion for ancient symbols.And off to Rome he goes, where he's immersed in a mystery that only a Ph.D. could solve, avoiding bullets while police are shot point blank by a bad Illuminati hell bent on wiping out the Catholic church's Preferiti.Langdon has a sexy scientist siren by his side (Ayelet Zurer), although the two remain on a very professional level throughout the film, something odd in a Hollywood movie."Angels & Demons" plays more like the "Bourne" series, with Hanks as Langdon kicking out wall grates in order to escape a sinister sniper, and jumping into fountains to rescue a drowning victim.There's plenty of mayhem as the slice of life of the movie is set during a conclave to elect a new pope, with millions of people gathered in the Piazza San Pietro, and television reporters from throughout the world are covering the event. Howard does a good job integrating the supposed live news angle of the story with the fictional mystery unfolding around them.It's definitely a challenge to take Brown's "Where's Waldo" clues that involve a secret passage in a Galileo manuscript and sculptures by Bernini and make them all make sense on the big screen without it appearing like a game of "Clue" with Colonel Mustard in the library with the lead pipe.Ewan McGregor is ever so saintly as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna and Stellan Skarsgaard is stern as the chief of Vatican security.At 136 minutes, the movie does move along at a clip, and spectacular photography and production values definitely make this film a devilish addition to the summer's movie blockbuster.
(out of four)Imagine a movie where antimatter is at the core of a fight between the Illuminatis and the Vatican, where Rome while not built in a day could get blown up in minutes, and where the science of symbology turns a professor into a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.So surrounds the plot of Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons," the prequel to the best-selling author's Oprah book hit "The DaVinci Code." The movie version, unlike the book, however, is set after "The DaVinci Code." That is why "Angels & Demons" stands on its own, so no worries if you haven't seen "Code" -- that isn't the reason you'll be lost.The beginning of the film is probably the most confusing. Physicists hover over a canister of antimatter particles that they've created and trapped at the CERN particle physics facility, a real laboratory in Switzerland that gave Brown the idea for his story. Ron Howard's direction has us winding around the facility in a tube, following the canister throughout the lab.When it finally reaches its resting place, moments later the physicist charged with guarding it is found bloodied, his eye removed (a bit graphic for this PG-13 rating). Flash forward to a pool at Harvard University, where a member of the Vatican police force has been sent to fetch Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a professor with a passion for ancient symbols.And off to Rome he goes, where he's immersed in a mystery that only a Ph.D. could solve, avoiding bullets while police are shot point blank by a bad Illuminati hell bent on wiping out the Catholic church's Preferiti.Langdon has a sexy scientist siren by his side (Ayelet Zurer), although the two remain on a very professional level throughout the film, something odd in a Hollywood movie."Angels & Demons" plays more like the "Bourne" series, with Hanks as Langdon kicking out wall grates in order to escape a sinister sniper, and jumping into fountains to rescue a drowning victim.There's plenty of mayhem as the slice of life of the movie is set during a conclave to elect a new pope, with millions of people gathered in the Piazza San Pietro, and television reporters from throughout the world are covering the event. Howard does a good job integrating the supposed live news angle of the story with the fictional mystery unfolding around them.It's definitely a challenge to take Brown's "Where's Waldo" clues that involve a secret passage in a Galileo manuscript and sculptures by Bernini and make them all make sense on the big screen without it appearing like a game of "Clue" with Colonel Mustard in the library with the lead pipe.Ewan McGregor is ever so saintly as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna and Stellan Skarsgaard is stern as the chief of Vatican security.At 136 minutes, the movie does move along at a clip, and spectacular photography and production values definitely make this film a devilish addition to the summer's movie blockbuster.Copyright 2009, Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
