Review: Angels & Demons
Ron Howard’s back in the director’s chair and Tom Hanks is back as Professor Robert Langdon in Angels & Demons. A&D is the “sequel” to the smash The Da Vinci Code, but the book was actually written before the biggest book of the decade.
A&D finds Professor Langdon back in the midst of mystery involving the Catholic Church, except this time he is helping them after a group known as the “Illuminati” kidnaps 4 cardinals before the conclave to elect a new Pope. Ewan McGregor plays the late Pope’s right hand man who helps Langdon solve the riddles that this franchise is known for.
Now, I am one of the few who enjoyed The Da Vinci Code the film; I thought it was a wonderful mix of action, mystery, humor and intelligence. Angels & Demons is a mixed bag, though. The parts revolving with Langdon solving the mystery are exactly what you expect and live up to its predecessor. Where it fails is the sense of mystery is misplaced and overdone. I saw the “twist” coming from 10 minutes into the movie and I think its not me taking a guess, but they make it fairly obvious. The ending is just overkill and the big event that happens makes no sense whatsoever from a pure-science stand point.
Hanks gives a some-what commendable job, but I wonder whether he will again do parts that challenge himself; it seems like he is playing himself a lot in this picture. McGregor is good, but I blame the script for not giving him more to work with.
Howard directs in a rather cookie-cutter action film fashion. I’m okay with this because trying to do anything more with this would have been trying to hard to be innovative or smart. Howard rarely makes films that are hatable or all that bad, and this fits into that mold.
Angels & Demons is an interesting film if you like history, puzzles, all those kind of things that are synonymous with Dan Brown’s books. The story is filled with holes and I left not caring much about what happened, but I think its a film that may be enjoyable to a lot of people.
