Movie Review - Angels & Demons

REVIEW – ANGELS & DEMONS

5 out of 10

Let me start my review by saying that I wasn’t a fan of 2006’s The Da Vinci Code, although I do love the book by Dan Brown.  Understandably, I went in to Angels & Demons with lower expectations and I felt very much like I did during Code…. Bored.  I will say that Angels is better than its predecessor, but truthfully that’s not saying much.  Adapting both The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons to the big screen seems like a no brainer on paper, but in reality it just doesn’t work.

It would be easy to blame all the films faults on director, Ron Howard, but it really isn’t quite that simple.  Howard does a good job at moving the film along at a brisk pace and the few action scenes are done well, but they are dull and the film is way too talky.  Think of it as a more cerebral, thinking man’s National Treasure; this is not a compliment.  If you’re going to spend so much time having characters talk out inane clues that the audience have no way of deciphering on their own, the action pieces in between have to be big and bold and most of all, exciting.  That is why a movie like National Treasure works and both Angels and Da Vinci don’t.  There’s no fun!  Not to mention way too much time spent at the Vatican with various big wigs of the church discussing religion and politics; I truly almost fell asleep a few times.

It is also amazing to me that these films star one of the most beloved actors of all time and yet they fail to capitalize on his charm.  Don’t get me wrong, Hanks is fine as professor Robert Langdon, but the script by Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp doesn’t give him much to do other than run around chasing clues while spouting his superior knowledge of Catholic history and the Illuminati, a secret society that preaches science, not religion.  You never get a real sense of Langdon’s motivations (other than that he is an author) or any real back story on the character which makes it impossible to connect with or care about him.  As I said, Hanks does the best he can with what is in front of him, it’s just simply not enough to sustain the movie.  The other actors including Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor and Armin Mueller- Stahlare are fine as well, but if you don’t have any connection with Hank’s character, you can imagine how little you care about the supporting players. 

The plot of Angels & Demons is much more straightforward than The Da Vinci Code; in fact it is so straight forward that the surprise ending isn’t remotely surprising.  I knew who the bad guy was from the first minute I saw him on screen (I have not read the novel).  The basic plot is this, the Pope dies, the 4 bishops who are next in line to be pope are kidnapped and also an anti-matter bomb has been stolen.  The Illuminati claims responsibility for these acts and plans to kill all the bishops (one every hour, starting at 8PM) and then eradicate the Vatican with the anti-matter bomb at midnight.  The Vatican calls in Illuminati expert Langdon to help them crack the case and save the day and the game of beat the clock begins.  What ensues is Langdon racing from location to location in an effort to save the lives of the bishops and stop the bomb before it is too late.  While this should be exciting, it just isn’t.  As far as the plot goes, all the clues that are given by the bad guys made me think that at any moment Jim Carrey was going to pop out wearing his Riddler costume from Batman Forever.  Riddle me this Langdon!  I’m also left wondering why the villains would go through the trouble of kidnapping the bishops in the first place.  Why not just set off the bomb and wipe everybody out at the same time?

To sum it up, Angels & Demons is a complete snore fest and should only be watched late at night when you are having trouble falling asleep.  Fifteen minutes into it you will be peacefully sleeping and hopefully your dreams will be more exciting than this movie.