There are some movies that are adapted from books that should never be. This is not one of those movies. Where The Da Vinci Code was preachy in its attempts to educate as well as entertain, Angels & Demons is, essentially, a romp, where the education is used only as exposition designed to make you long for more and, in short, is a damn fine movie – for a summer blockbuster.
Angels & Demons is a complex story including a number of facets, both religious, secular and scientific. As the story begins, we meet Robert Langdon – after The Da Vinci Code – as his presence is officially requested at the Vatican. It is the day of the Conclave, the event in which the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church select their new Pontiff, an event that takes place exactly 15 days after the death of the previous Pope. It seems that the Vatican has received a threat, in the form of an ancient, and long thought to be fictional, ambigram (a word that when presented graphically is the same both right side and upside down). By the time they reach Vatican City the veiled threat has materialized into a real one – a bomb has been placed somewhere in the city. It is not, however, a regular bomb. It was created by a group of scientists at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research – a real organization) , the leader of which is Vittoria Vetra, a very passionate physicist. The bomb itself is called antimatter and it is the direct result of the process of creating matter, in essence, creating life. Unfortunately, if this antimatter comes into contact with matter an explosion of, ahem, biblical proportions. In addition, one Cardinal will be publicly executed every hour beginning at 8pm. The group claiming responsibility is the Vatican’s old foe, the Illuminati. Enter Robert Langdon (again) who can find the Path of Illumination, a trail left by the ancient Illuminatus as a test for their newest members.
The films is an excellent example of taking a text and giving it its own life. A great deal has been left out and added in, but all of it done in the service of the story. The portrayals here were excellent. Tom Hanks has finally redeemed himself in this role after having spent The Da Vinci Code looking as though he wanted to run out the back of the screen. This Robert Langdon is not impotent, restrained by his “but I’m not even supposed to be here today” mentality. Instead he passionately does not want to see an institution with such a great deal of history destroyed, despite his inherent lack of faith. This was a character I finally felt I could connect to, essentially an everyman, injected into crazy circumstances.
Ewan McGregor was excellent as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (the Pope’s secretary and closest confidant, being the one left in charge when the Pope passes). McGregor is a passionate and charismatic actor who is immediately likable, and based solely on the character in the book I can understand his casting in the role, but the script ties his hands frequently, taking the bite out of his faith. It means that the audience understands his actions and motives a little less. In essence, McGregor’s brilliance as an actor was considerably underused.
I felt that the peripheral casting of Stellan Skarsgaard and Armin Mueller-Stahl was excellent, even though they are very small roles. It gave the film a credibility it wouldn’t have had without them.
Of course, seeing the locales – or at least the recreation of the locales – that are mentioned in this book was incredible, especially on the big screen. While I do not, under any circumstances, believe that the rituals shown in this movie are anything close to the reality of what happens in the Vatican at Conclave, nor that the churches and locations around Rome were available for filming, the way in which it was presented certainly added, again, to the film’s credibility.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I think that, while it has a great number of flaws, it certainly is a great summer popcorn movie. Unlike The Da Vinci Code, which seemingly aimed to teach, Angels & Demons aims to entertain, which is why the Vatican has been so incensed by it. The only complaint I would have is that the film has essentially been stripped of any real spirituality. The rewriting of much of the Camerlengo character, the changing of the relationship between Vittoria and her “research partner” and such little connect to the pope that just passed, the faith in this movie is rather wielded as a club – an obstacle – rather than what it should have been, which was the heart of this movie. Not being a religious person myself, I do not consider myself “faithless” and I feel that overlooking and leaving out much of the faith is a mistake. Regardless of this, however, I strongly recommend this movie as exactly what it is – entertainment.
