Angels and Demons

In the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Ron Howard brings back all the elements that made that film such a runaway (albeit controversial) success. A mysterious group known as The Illuminati have stolen a piece of Dark Matter from a laboratory which has been stashed somewhere in Vatican City and has less than 24hours before it explodes and takes the entire city with it. The Illuminati have also kidnapped four cardinals who will be executed one every hour from eight o'clock. The church, desperate for help and the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor) looking for answers, they call on expert symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to help them track down the Cardinals and the bomb before it is too late. Aided by scientist Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer) Langdon chases all the clues that litter the city while the rest of the Catholic Church decide on the new Pope, but is the enemy closer than they all think?

If there was ever a film that was effected by time it would be this one. Angels and Demons takes places over a little under 24 hour period and if it had been filmed as a real-time 24-style TV show, it would have been perfect. Instead, as it is, time makes this film suffer greatly. Langdon has only sixty minutes to discover where each of the Cardinals is and this time seems to speed up and slow down depending on what Langdon has to do. At one point, Langdon even has time to have a wash and change his clothes between searches. You can't really imagine Jack Bauer stopping halfway through an episode of 24 to go and change his clothes, maybe get a haircut and stop for a burger now can you? Because of this there are times when I simply could not suspend my belief that they could get from one end of the city to the next in a matter of minutes or that Langdon is so brilliant that he could figure out these clues within a matter of seconds.




As a film, Ron Howard has clearly learnt much from making The Da Vinci Code as the film looks amazing. The use of sets and set pieces through make this film look glorious. Music by Hans Zimmer feels a bit too much like he's just reused his score from the previous film, but it still works with the film and the editing is quick and fast as it should be. The acting is a mix bag, with Hanks able to hold his own as Langdon and it's just a shame that he does not have a strong support with Zurer as he had with Audrey Tautou in the last film. There is no real focus of any of the supporting actors as they seem to just weave in and out with no consequences, which is shame, but can be expected, as this is a film which is really all about whether Hanks can hold the film on his own, and for the most part he can. Acting-wise, the only real issue I have is with Ewan McGregor's accent. McGregor seems to have adopted the Colin Farrell way of acting in which he will have no trace of an Irish accent for the entire film until he actually refers to his 'orish' background and suddenly sounds like he's stepped out of a Dublin pub after three pints of Guinness. It's not a big issue, but one of those things that really gets to me.

With only three special features, it's difficult to recommend this when you know that a 2-Disk Special Edition is lurking around the corner. However, the three ten minute featurettes are interesting for those who enjoyed the film. They cover Ambigrams, Props and Writing and so are not as dense and packed full of unnecessary information as some might. Though a commentary and maybe a look into the filming, casting and the score would have made this a better disk.

Angels and Demons is a good film for those who have read the book. It is certainly not one that you will say 'oh the book is better' as they seemed to have kept fairly faithful to the source. That being said, it's not a film I can imagine people watching more than a couple of times before they move onto something a bit more cheery.