Mystery thriller based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role from the 2006 film 'The Da Vinci Code' as Harvard symbologist and religious expert Robert Langdon, who works alongside Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer), the beautiful daughter of a murdered Italian physicist, to unravel the clues behind her father's murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican by resurgents of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati, the most powerful underground organisation in history.
| Starring: |
Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, David Pasquesi, Victor Alfieri, Cosimo Fusco, Allen Dula, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Carmen Argenziano |
| Director: |
Ron Howard |
| Languages: |
English |
| Distributor: |
|
MyMovies
Ron Howard is back with "Angels and Demons", the sequel to the much-maligned money-spinner "The Da Vinci Code". So, does ...
Ron Howard is back with "Angels and Demons", the sequel to the much-maligned money-spinner "The Da Vinci Code". So, does this film live up to the hype and controversy? Was it worth annoying the Vatican? Has Tom Hanks' hairstyle improved from the "Da Vinci" mullet debacle?All important questions, and on the whole, the film responds positively (including on Hanks' hairstyle). With the Pope recently deceased and the college of cardinals locked in the process of electing a new leader, symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) is called to help the Vatican track down a kidnapper who is holding hostage the four most eminent cardinals. Claiming to represent the Illuminati, the Enlightenment-era secret society committed to scientific thinking, the kidnapper plans to kill one cardinal every hour. The murders will be revenge for the church's brutal attacks against the society 200 years ago and will culminate at midnight with an almighty explosion to destroy the Vatican. Langdon, with the aid of Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), defy Rome's road safety regulations to try and save the day using clues that would be indecipherable to anyone not in possession of an encyclopaedic knowledge of Catholic symbology. Meanwhile, the grief-stricken Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor) is tasked with the job of interim leader of the church before a new Pope is elected.Visually stunning and relentlessly entertaining, "Angels" is a marked improvement from the first instalment. Hanks comes across as more likeable, while there are enough moments of edge-of-the-seat excitement to give filmgoers value for money, including a glorious sequence near the end involving the sky above St Peter's Square transforming into a blazing inferno.Yet, by trying to pack in as much action as Howard does into this film it often feels like sensory overload - everyone is running, everyone is on edge, everyone's getting killed. Inevitably, this leads to some very thinly traced characters and the audience is given little time to get to know them. Still, this is a film focused on providing entertainment and even the Catholic Church would admit it does that admirably.
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Press Association
In various religious texts and works of art, angels and demons are regarded as the spirit messengers to the afterlife ...
In various religious texts and works of art, angels and demons are regarded as the spirit messengers to the afterlife in either Heaven or Hell. Ron Howard's action-packed film, adapted from the bestseller by Dan Brown, hovers somewhere between the two planes, jettisoning the ponderous dialogue, which blighted The Da Vinci Code in favour of a protracted game of cat and mouse around Rome. The pace is certainly quicker by virtue of Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp's lean and mechanical script, which shifts the timeline of the source novel. Thus, Angels , &, Demons is now a sequel rather than a prequel to The Da Vinci Code, referenced in a couple of lines of throwaway dialogue when characters remark on the strained relationship between Harvard professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and the church. The altered chronology matters little since Hanks is the sole returning member of cast, essaying the urbane symbologist whose encyclopaedic knowledge of secret brotherhoods proves invaluable in saving the holy city from destruction. When a respected research scientist is murdered in his particle physics laboratory at the CERN facility in Geneva, his eye torn out to bypass a retina security scanner, Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned to investigate. He links a symbol on the dead man to a secret society called the Illuminati, which was thought to have died out centuries ago. In a chilling twist, Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) reveals that a canister full of antimatter was stolen from the laboratory by the assassin, and is now primed to explode somewhere within the Vatican. Robert joins forces with Vittoria to search for clues under the watchful eye of the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor), the acting head of state until the election of the new Pope, and the worldly Cardinal Strauss (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Adding to their woes, the preferiti, the four Cardinals most likely to by elected Pope, have been kidnapped by the assassin (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) who intends to slay them at hourly intervals in secret, holy locations. Commanders Richter (Stellan Skarsgard) and Olivetti (Pierfrancesco Favino) from the Swiss Guard and the gendarmarie respectively pledge their support but Robert and Vittoria have just a few hours to avert catastrophe by following a 400-year-old Path of Illumination. Angels , &, Demons is thankfully shorter than its predecessor (by a mere 10 minutes) and is ultimately the more enjoyable film of the two, trading in the convoluted history lesson and spurious mythology for unabashed thrills. Unfortunately, by excising so much of the plot underpinning Brown's book, Langdon is reduced to a glorified tour guide. His dialogue is almost entirely expository, even tutoring the Swiss Guard and the gendarmarie on the Vatican City's shady past in order to expose dark forces at work in this convoluted yarn. Robert and Vittoria's quest is book-marked by Hanks explaining the method behind his actions, flagging up the next link in the narrative chain. Hanks has buffed up, considerably and appears to have re-cultivated some of his hair since his last foray, while McGregor's Irish accent comes and goes on a whim, and Zurer is almost redundant until the finale when she has to demonstrate a cool head. Production values are high throughout and the big set pieces well orchestrated, including a hilarious and unforgettable moment in St Peter's Square that proves what goes up must come down. With a bump. Hallelujah!
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