Angels and Demons – Review

Angels and Demons acts as a sequel to The Da Vinci Code in the movie world, in the book form it was a prequel, however. I’m not sure if that matters that it was flipped flopped for Ron Howard’s adaptation to film. You can say whatever you’d like about Dan Brown’s bestsellers, I thought The Da Vinci Code was a bit of a bore. The subject matter was highly fascinating, but the film failed to excited when Robert Langdon went off looking for clues. Plus, I’ve seen some gripping documentaries on the film’s subject that interested me more than the fictional film.

So, another good cast, Ron Howard‘s back for this sequel after critical praise for Frost/Nixon, and had hoped that this would be a more gripping thriller than The Da Vinci Code, and yet it’s probably more boring. This is a fairly predictable film too, which I’ll just blame on the screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, the man solely blamed for ruining Batman. It took years for that character to be resurrected properly, but it’s still a stain on my retinas. While these two Dan Brown adaptations aren’t as bad as that abomination, the fact that they’re overly long, boring to the extent that each scene happens slowly, predictably, makes me wonder if he’s turning these puppies out in first draft form.

Okay, I understand what’s boring to someone is just a matter of taste, but I don’t think I’m alone. We’re quickly lectured via narration in the opening scene about the nature and tradition of how the Catholics go about choosing a new Pope. Play this out within the film. From there on out, you better know a lot of Catholic tradition, because this mysterious narrator disappears.

And to think, early on the Church was peeved at this film. Really? I see no blasphemy here. The film tackles the nature of religion versus science, a touchy subject among the faithful, but it’s surface level mumbo jumbo. I think there could’ve been a good discussion to hinge the film on, but Goldsman script is to concerned with moving Langdon from here to there, randomly solving clues long thought buried, and throwing false leads on us. He always seems to figure out what to do right before the clock stops ticking. The Illuminati is another interesting subject, but handled here, its corny. Just an old fable trying to distract us from falling asleep. The actors do a good job, but nobody’s giving much to do, and that a huge shame because we got Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, and Stellan Skarsgaard.

For the story this film tells, 135 minutes is to dangerous to have. It’s too long, uninvolved, and those looking to see why the Church was up in arms (at first, they said it was no big deal), you’ll just find that the film wasted their time.  

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