Angels and Demons

(2009)

Dir: Ron Howard

Angels and Demons works much better on the screen than it ever did on the page. In the same vain as adaptations of Tom Clancy or the techno-babble of Michael Crichton, Brown’s fiction is filled with interesting plot, thrilling action and page after bloody page of tedious, expositional dialogue. That is still a serious problem in Ron Howard’s first Brown adaptation, 2006’s The Da Vinci code, but he does his best to eliminate as much of the monotonous drivel as possible in Professor Robert Langdon’s second clash with the world of religion. Mind you though, there’s still a hell of a lot left.

This time around, Langdon, a smug Tom Hanks, is recruited by the Vatican to assist in the recovery of four Cardinals, kidnapped during Papal Conclave. The villains, the legendary Illuminati, have also stolen a vial of antimatter from CERN and have planted it somewhere in the Vatican, set the blow. Thus begins a wild chase. For a plot that’s been done by everyone from Willis to Van Damme, it really is rather complicated. Antimatter instead of a nuclear bomb? Come on now.

 

“Holy antimatter, Batman.”

 

But the convoluted plotting aside, Angels and Demons is still an entertaining ride, rarely slowing down for its albeit overlong 146 minute running time.

You couldn’t really ask for a better location to shoot a film, but Howard and cinematographer Salvatore Totino do a wonderful job of turning the beautiful Vatican into a dark, flickering, Gothic labyrinth.

The cast does what they can with the painfully dimensionless characters, though it’s only Nikolaj Lie Kaas and the husky voiced Stellan Skarsgård who make anything of their albeit slim roles, investing The Assassin and Commander Richter respectively with real menace and mystery.

A visually enjoyable yet silly thriller; despite what the book might want you to believe, this is popcorn entertainment.

*** ¼ / *****