Today I had the pleasure of seeing Angels and Demons, the prequel to the Da Vinci code. Once again director Ron Howard teams up with Tom Hanks to deliver the latest installment of the film series.
Professor Robert Langdon is called to the Vatican to help with deciphering the clues which lead to the re-apperance of the Illuminati, an old secret society which felt that science would always trump religion. The Illuminati has taken a powerful anti matter from a research facility and has promised to destroy the Vatican and much of Rome, Prof. Langdon teams up with the Dr. in charge of the anti matter research team in Geneva to uncover the mystery and stop the illuminati.
This was just an OK movie. It was nowhere near as good as the Da Vinci code. The first part of the film had me telling myself I hated it. Tom Hanks played a great Robert Langdon come to think of it — he never plays a bad part. This flick was slow to build, and quick to disappoint. Danielle and I both found it very easy to figure out what was going to happen, their was not much mystery to the story and I’ve never read the book so I went into it blind and still found it far from hard to figure out what was happening next. The ending took a decent turn I did not see coming, but that was really the only surprising part the whole movie.
Overall it’s a rental really, I don’t think you need to rush out and see it right now. It’s not the worst movie, I enjoyed it — however it was nowhere near as good as it’s predecessor.
2 Comments to “Angels and Demons”
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side note: Angels and Demons was written before the DaVinci code, and they are separate stories. The film version puts Angels and Demons after the DaVinci codes events to “tie it all together.” This was in part to media hype surrounding the DaVinci code I reckon. I might be wrong here, but I honestly can’t remember hardly ANY references to Angels and Demons in the DaVinci code. I’ll put my foot in my mouth if Dan Brown wants to explain.
Angels and Demons is not a prequel. You will note that in the very beginning they address Dr. Langdon’s previous involvement in Christendom when he is summoned to Vatican City.
They are completely different stories all together, they only share the main character. Professor Langdon is the Indiana Jones of solving some of the best kept secrets in Religious “swept under the rug history.” As a HUGE fan of the book and Dan Brown, I thought the adaptation was mediocre at best but still quite a fun ride. Dan Brown actually does some great rationalizing of the bond between science and religion in the book. I feel that the most important messages of the text were lost and communicated poorly on the big screen.
Personally, I’m waiting for Digital Fortress. It follows the same generic Dan Brown plot formula, but involves super computers, code crackers, and slackers. :p
p.s. Dan Brown’s plot formula is
weak protagonist -> race against time -> info dump of fictionalized knowledge (to make you feel smart but sadly all will take it as fact) -> someone out to kill -> WIN.