Angels and Demons

Overall score:

Tom Hanks, Ewan MacGregor, Stellen Skarsgard, Armin Muehller-Stahl
Based on the Novel by Dan Brown
Screenplay by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman
Directed by Ron Howard 
 
Some of you may remember our review of The Da Vinci Code in 2006. It sparked a lot of debate on the message boards. Despite being fans of Ron Howard and Tom Hanks, we didn’t care for the film. In fact, we really didn't care for it. Not because we were book purists--we had not, and still have not, read anything by Dan Brown. We simply found Da Vinci to be a contrived, plodding bore that was weighted down with an absurd sense of self importance, and being treated as if it were a new book of scripture--rarely has any work of fiction been so insufferable and melodramatically treated with such exaggerated stature.

But Howard's recent Frost/Nixon may have been his best film yet, and it was hard not to get a little excited. So we went back to revisit The Da Vinci Code in preparation for its sequel. We didn’t make it  past a hour-and-a-half.  So, with that in mind, we went in with low expectations.
 
Thankfully, Angels and Demons is the most surprisingly enjoyable film of the summer thus far. Howard, along with screenwriters David Koepp and Akaiva Goldsman, seem to be hell-bent (no pun intended) on improving from their previous misfire, and the result  is an engaging thriller that knows exactly what it wants to be, and doesn't pretend to be anything else.
 
Another dead man, in this case a scientist named Vetra, is found, and once again, his chest is covered in an ancient symbol, so it's up to Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to put the pieces together. But this time Langdon is working for a rather auspicious client--the Vatican itself.
 
What Langdon finds at the murder scene frightens him: the symbol appears to be an authentic symbol of the Illuminati, an ancient secret society, which was long believed to be defunct, but has apparently resurfaced. Vetra's adopted daughter Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer) is brought  to the scene, and it is later revealed that the Illuminati has also stolen a canister containing a quarter of a gram of antimatter—an extremely dangerous substance with destructive potential comparable to a small nuclear weapon, a potential unleashed upon contact with any form of normal matter. When charged with electricity at its lab, the canister's magnetic field controls the drop of antimatter to float suspended in a high vacuum, ensuring safety; but when it was taken away from its electricity supply, it automatically switched to its back-up battery, which will only power it for 24 hours. The horrible truth is that the Illuminati has put the stolen canister somewhere in Vatican City, with a security camera in front of it as its digital clock counts down to the explosion.
 
Langdon and Vittoria make their way to Vatican City, where the Pope has recently died, and the Papal Conclave has convened to elect the new pontiff. Cardinal Strauss (Armen Muehller-Stahl), host of the election, discovers that the four Preferiti, cardinals who are considered to be the most likely candidates in the election, are missing. After they arrive, Langdon and Vittoria begin searching for the Preferiti in hopes that they will also find the antimatter canister in the process. Their search is assisted by Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), the late pope's closest aide, and the Vatican's Swiss Guard, which includes the hard-nosed Captain Richter (Stellan Skarsgard.).
 
The film moves at a fast pace, playing very much like a cross between Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and "24," and though the solution to the mystery is, once again, not nearly as shocking and surprising as it is supposed to be, it's a blast (no pun intended) getting there. Hanks really shines this time around, minus the bad hairdo and with an added sense of humor. Howard has taken the Patriot Games approach and chosen to play this as a sequel, even though the book took place before The Da Vinci Code, and Langdon's sense of bitterness and wariness toward the Church after his past experience adds a nice nuance and some very entertaining moments, in particular in his interaction with Stahl and Skarsgard. MacGregor, who seemed to have disappeared from the spotlight, is back with all of the charm and charisma that we have come to expect from him, playing a character may remind you of the religious equivalent of Bill Pullman's fighter jock President in Independence Day. MacGregor deftly commands the screen and sells even the silliest elements of the film with a seemingly endless supply of charm and class. And the picturesque cinematography by Salvator Totino and sharp editing skills of Mike Hill and Dan Hanley makes this thoroughly rousing on a visual level, even if there are no space ships or giant naked smurf men. But the M.V.P. here is David Koepp, Steven Spielberg's "go to guy," who was brought in to give the script his patented zing. Inviting Koepp along for the ride was the best choice Howard has made since . . . well, since asking Frank Langella to reprise his stage performance as Richard Nixon.
 
Of course, with any Dan Brown story comes the question: how sacreligious/anti-Catholic is this? The answer is that movie really is not sacreligious, and while it doesn't really pull any punches in accusing the Catholic Church of being a deeply flawed organization with a dark past, it's far from a hatchet job, and is surprisingly respectful to the faithful. Robert Langdon represents sides of the Fox Mulder/Dana Scully paradigm in the "Is God Out There?"  question, and thankfully, Hanks is more than up to the task. Hanks givers a very credible turn as a "Harrison Ford in Harris Tweed," and it's time for all of the overzealous fans to back off and let him do his thing.
 
Over all, this is not a great film. But it's quite a good one, and that was more than enough for us.
 
Angels and Demons is Rated PG-13 for violence, profanity and suspense.

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Written by Patrick & Paul Gibbs on May 10th, 2009