Movie Review: Angels and Demons
“Angels & Demons” is the second bestselling novel by the critically-acclaimed author Dan Brown to hit the big screen in the last few years. The movie features the return of the great Harvard religious expert, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), who has been summoned by The Vatican to help stop a path of destruction being created by a secret society that calls itself The Illuminati. The ancient and deadly brotherhood has captured four cardinals who are in line to be the next Pope and is threatening to kill them and eventually blow up Vatican City. It is up to Langdon and his partner, Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra, to crack a series of ancient symbols and hidden messages so they can save the Cardinals, the future Pope and of course, The Vatican. “Angels & Demons” also stars Ewan McGregor as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (that’s some sort of priest for those of you who don’t know) and Stellan Skarsgard as Commander Richter, the head of security at The Vatican.
First of all, I must comment that I was glad to see that Robert Langdon decided to get a haircut between “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons” because the hairdo from two years ago was absolutely horrid and very distracting for most of the movie. It made his noggin look so big on the screen but thankfully his head seems to have shrunk back to normal size. Secondly, I must comment on the shape Mr. Langdon has whipped himself into for this movie. In his opening scene, Langdon is doing laps in a swimming pool and he was looking very svelte, if I do say so myself. Langdon obviously hasn’t lost his skills to analyze and crack pretty much any code or symbol that is thrown his way, as he seems to whip through every obstacle thrown his way with remarkable speed and accuracy. I was somewhat shocked, however, that a guy with such fascination for history and artifacts didn’t jump over the table and start strangling Vittoria when she ripped a page out of an old book written by Galileo (I believe) – just completely disrespectful and unnecessary, if you ask me.
As for the rest of the movie, well, I guess I’ll just say that if you liked “The Da Vinci Code”, then chances are you will be okay with “Angels & Demons”. They are very similar movies. Seeing as how “Da Vinci” made something like $760 million worldwide, there must have been a lot of people who liked it. It kind of surprises me that it made that much money but I guess there was so much hype surrounding the movie that it shouldn’t be that shocking. I had read the “Da Vinci” novel before I saw the movie and it’s one of the few times in my life that I actually liked the book more than the movie. I’m not a big book guy so any chance I get to watch a movie instead of reading a book, I’ll do it. I’ve had the “Angels & Demons” book sitting on my almost bare bookshelf for quite some time but have never gotten around to reading it and I’m not sure this movie will make me move any faster. I mean, it was an okay movie – it had its moments. But the moment I saw one of the priests pulling these moves that would make John Rambo a proud man, I really had to shake my head a bit. The last 20 minutes or so of the movie really were quite odd.
With that being said, I will say that “Angels & Demons” did have its moments. Yes, there was a lot of talking and a lot of explaining going on throughout the movie, mostly by Langdon and just like in “The Da Vinci Code”. I think some of that talking and explaining might be interesting on the pages of a book but sometimes it doesn’t translate well onto the screen. But there was some excitement in the movie. It was interesting at times. and I won’t say it is a total write-off. As I said earlier, if you were a fan of “The Da Vinci Code” movie, chances are you will be okay with “Angels & Demons” and considering there was $760 million worth of people who seemed to like the latter, I’m sure things will be just find for the former. (6/10)
Comments
2 Comments on Movie Review: Angels and Demons
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Jack Meyhoffer on
Fri, 15th May 2009 7:56 pm
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Goonie Goo Goo on
Sat, 16th May 2009 8:41 am
I didn’t like The DaVinci Code and I won’t be seeing this piece of shit either. Hanks hasn’t been in a good movie in 10 years. Ron Howard should stick to directing Frost/Nixon and Cinderalla Man. Howard = most overrated director in Hollywood. Don’t believe me? Look at his filmography.
Yeah, CInderella Man, Backdraft, A Beautiful Mind, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frost/Nixon are all excellent movies. He’s a good director.
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