Angels&Demons Review

Angels & Demons: Ron Howard and Tom Hanks bring their second Dan Brown offering to the big screen. It pains me to say this, but they struck out again. I actually think the mediocre Da Vinci Code was a better effort. Angels & Demons feels rushed, insincere, and fails to capture one of the significant themes from the book - religion vs. science. The screenplay actually varies quite a lot from the novel, which should have given them more time to properly pace the movie, but it failed to do so. Code and Demons are both tough novels to translate onto film as so much of the action and discovery is done in the hero’s mind. The hero again is Robert Langdon (Hanks). He is summoned by the Vatican police to help solve a grave threat that has been made by the ancient secret group – the Illuminati. The Vatican is in conclave (electing a new pope) when four cardinals are kidnapped. The Illuminati say that they will execute each cardinal every hour at a different church in Rome. The fifth hour will bring mass destruction to Rome by means of a hidden bomb. The bomb is actually a droplet of “antimatter” which was created by scientists at CERN – thus making it a war between science and religion (this theme is barely touched on). Can Langdon figure out which churches the cardinals will be taken to and can he save them before they meet their maker? His only lead is a 400 year old poem by Galileo. From there, he must follow clues that take him across Rome, but time is not on his side. Not nearly as suspenseful as it should have been…..not as smart as it should have been….just not as good as it should have been.
Ry’s Rating: C

If this movie had parents they would be: Speed & The Da Vinci Code

With a runtime of 148 minutes

this film is rated PG-13