Angels & Demons
October 5th, 2009
After the murder of Italian physicist Leonardo Vetra, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon’s (Tom Hanks) investigation with Vetra’s daughter (Ayelet Zurer) leads to a secret society, the Illuminati, and a quest for the world’s most potent — and deadly — energy source. Ron Howard directed the crime thriller, which is based on The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s novel and co-stars Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgård.
Part City of Rome travelogue, part Catholic church legends/myths/history, part treasure hunt game, and with a non-stop chase scene style, this movie does hold your attention during over 2 hour length. Remotely believable? Hardly, but certainly entertaining. The basic story has our heroes Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Vittoria Vetra (Avelet Zurer) called into action by the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor), a sort of interim Pope while a new one is elected, and the Swiss Guard Commander (Stellan Skarsgard), to find the four kidnapped front runner cardinals for the Pope position, and also to disarm an explosive device threatening The Vatican. Of course all the clues to finding anything are buried in Church historical archives and myths. One clue points to a place in Rome pointing to another, as Vetra and Langdon try to save the cardinals and disarm the device. As they race about, the lovely Vetra seems to be mainly there so Langdon can has a personto direct his historical monologues towards – zero romantic interest is present. The star of the movie to me was Ewan McGregor – very convincing in his Camerlengo role, a man with ulterior motives. Another great performance was Armin Mueller-Stahl as Cardinal Strauss – a weary old man trying to maintain tradition in light of changes in the World. The cinematography of the Rome and the many churches was spectacular, however, the constant chase scenes got a little old. I loved the Joshua Bell violin solos on the quite good soundtrack. Overall the movie is sort of a watered down action film that doesn’t have much of a lasting effect, but sure is entertaining.
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