angels-demonsMy problems with the movie versions of Dan Brown’s bestsellers are the same problems I have with the books themselves.  They tend to get bogged down in all the story, and the trivia is better than the plot.  I must admit, though, that I enjoy the movies more so than the novels.  It took me quite awhile to read the book Angels & Demons because I refused to skip the more boring parts.  The movie condenses the book and is quite good.  Of course, like the book, if you don’t think too much about it, then you too will probably find yourself having an enjoyable, escapist, good time.

Tom Hanks returns as symbologist Robert Langdon, and in his second outing, his hair is not so distracting.  The Pope has died, and it surfaces that he was murdered by Catholicism’s ages old enemy the Illuminati.  Langdon is summoned by the Vatican to not only help find the murderer, but to help find the four preferiti (the ones highly favored to be elected as the next Pope).  There has also been a canister of antimatter stolen from the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland that the Illuminati has hidden in Vatican City.  The Illuminati threaten to kill one of the preferiti every hour until midnight when the battery on the antimatter canister will die, causing the antimatter to become unstable and explode sending Vatican City, and a very large portion of Rome, to God.

Now, to stop the Illuminati, Langdon must find the landmarks left by the original Illuminati that leads to their secret headquarters.  He finds that, he finds the murderer, he finds the antimatter, and he saves the day.  But it’s not that easy, because the Illuminati have help inside the Vatican, and Langdon doesn’t know who he can really trust on his race across Vatican City.


Angels & Demons is a little convoluted, and a little drawn out; if Langdon, or anyone else for that matter, really thought about, they would find the antimatter in a…matter…of minutes.  But that would cut back on the desperate chase across the Pope’s little country, and that would be a shame.  The movie, like the book, is filled with facts and tidbits of information that are far more interesting than most of the mystery.  But, luckily, director Ron Howard and the other powers that be saw fit to have David Koepp (Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) work on the screenplay.  Even when Angels & Demons is in low gear, it is still pretty good little suspense movie.

I liked this one better than The Da Vinci Code.  I think it’s better adapted, and just overall a better entertainment.  Grab a big bag of popcorn and sit back and relax for a couple of hours with Angels & Demons.

4 out of 5
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