Review: Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons

OPENING: 05/15/2009

STUDIO: Colmbia Pictures

RUN TIME: 138 min

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

SOUNDTRACK:

The Charge
The holiest event of our time. Perfect for their return.

Opening Statement
Director Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code stirred up a good deal of controversy back in 2006, leading to enormous buzz that earned the film a great deal of money at the box office (despite generally poor reviews from critics). I didn’t think too much of The Da Vinci Code, an impressive spectacle but whose plot was both silly and tedious. The sequel, Angels & Demons, is not any less silly than its predecessor, but a good deal more entertaining.

Facts of the Case
Controversial symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is going about a normal day, enjoying a nice swim in the pool, when approached by a member of the Vatican police force who insists Langdon come with him on a matter of urgent business. Langdon is surprised by the request, as during his previous adventure he claimed he had discovered a descendant of Jesus Christ. This obviously did not make the Catholic Church particularly happy, but the intellectual cleverness demonstrated by Langdon during that series of events caused the church to regard him as a "formidable" expert. It seems there is trouble in Vatican City which the church believes Langdon can help solve. The Vatican is in the process of attempting to select a new leader, following the death of the pope, and their four leading candidates for the job have all been kidnapped by an ancient enemy of the church: The Illuminati.

Since The Illuminati have always relied heavily on vague symbols, Langdon is asked to examine the riddles which must be deciphered, if the four kidnapped cardinals are to be saved. Beginning at 8 PM on the day of the kidnapping, one cardinal will be executed each hour until all four cardinals are dead. Worse yet, The Illuminati have stolen some potentially deadly anti-matter from a science lab in Switzerland. At midnight, the battery on the container holding the anti-matter will run out, causing the anti-matter to come into contact with matter, creating a massive explosion that would destroy all of Vatican City. It’s up to Langdon and scientist sidekick Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) to solve the clues and save the day!



The Evidence
Angels & Demons is every bit as preposterous as it sounds, if not more so. It is a ridiculous movie, in many ways, but I found it considerably more satisfying than The Da Vinci Code thanks to Ron Howard bringing his A-game. The previous film took itself very seriously, moving along at a solemn and stately pace which made the less believable plot elements seem all the more nonsensical. Angels & Demons wisely doesn’t slow down long enough to give the viewer time to think, providing a very engaging and well-crafted thriller. Sure, pick it apart mercilessly afterwards, but the fact of the matter is that it’s a lot of fun while you’re watching.

The action/suspense quotient is raised drastically this time, turning the plot into a Vatican City version of 24. The race-against-the-clock gimmick gives the movie a reason to keep moving forward with great speed, as Langdon must rush from one place to the next. Yes, we get the same constant stream of historical tidbits and symbology trivia we received in The Da Vinci Code, but this time the movie doesn’t pause to allow such banalities to overtake the proceedings. There are several impressive suspense set pieces, particularly one in which Langdon and a security guard are trapped inside a room running out of oxygen. Howard really seems to be into it, his scenes crackling with the sort of energy that The Da Vinci Code so desperately needed.



Tom Hanks is an effective lead for this sort of film, melding the on-the-spot quick thinking of Jack Bauer with the endless (though sometimes flawed) knowledge of Wikipedia. Hanks’ acting skills are not employed in the service of carrying big dramatic scenes, but rather to a much less glorious cause. Here he is constantly asked to say things which people around him already know, in order to convey information to the audience. That sort of thing happens in movies a lot and it usually annoys me, but Hanks manages to play such material with a natural ease helping to mask the fact that real people don’t speak in such a manner. It must be incredibly challenging to pull off a line like, "They’ve kidnapped your four preferred choices, also known as the preferati," but Hanks does it with aplomb.

The supporting cast get to do a bit more actual acting. Stellan Skarsgard brings a world-weary grumpiness to the role of the Vatican police chief which I quite liked. When Langdon arrives in Vatican City, Skarsgard mutters, "Oh thank heavens, the symbologist is here." Armin Mueller-Stahl is a tremendously talented actor with a knack for seeming suspicious, and he employs that to a very strong degree here. Perhaps his shiftiness is a bit too blatant, as his bright red cardinal outfit Mueller-Stahl already makes him look like a red herring. Ewan McGregor brings his patented brand of open-faced earnestness to his role as a gentle priest attempting to keep things under control. Only Zurer doesn’t have a lot to do. Her character exists primarily to give Hanks someone to exchange trivia with.



Angels & Demons generally avoids the sort of controversial items that made the Catholic Church so unhappy with The Da Vinci Code, sticking mostly to action while avoiding examination of spiritual issues. The film does make an attempt to address the never-ending antagonistic relationship between religion and science (a topic complex and fascinating enough to be examined in-depth in a feature film), but it’s really more of a side item offering a condensed version of the final scene from Inherit the Wind: "Hey, golly gee, it sure would be great if science and religion could understand that they can live together in harmony."

Closing Statement
Despite the film’s spiritually-charged title, you will find little in the way of supernatural elements here, just a good old-fashioned thriller which happens to involve the Catholic Church. It’s good fun, and I recommend it as a reasonably satisfying popcorn flick.

The Verdict
7/10

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