Today’s quick review: Angels & Demons. Following the death of the Pope, an unknown party claiming to be the Illuminati kidnaps four cardinals and threatens to detonate a stolen cannister of antimatter within the Vatican. The Vatican calls in Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) to decipher the Illuminati’s clues and locate the bomb before it is too late.
Angels & Demons is a mystery thriller based on the novel by Dan Brown. The sequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons recreates its predecessor’s distinct flavor of historical mystery. Tom Hanks returns as Robert Langdon, a religious symbologist with a sharp mind for puzzles, in another incident involving the Catholic Church. But this time the threat is not an ancient conspiracy but a modern one, resulting in a race against time all across the Vatican.
Angels & Demons has strong craftsmanship that makes it an unusually substantive thriller. The cast is once again geared for drama, and supporting cast members Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, and Stellan Skarsgard hold their own. The plot is not as iconic as The Da Vinci Code’s, but it remains gripping from start to finish. Director Ron Howard and composer Hans Zimmer also lend their talents again, giving the movie a polished, consistent feel.
Angels & Demons makes a better attempt than most movies at being a coherent, intellectual thriller, but it falls short in a few key respects. Much like The Da Vinci Code, the logic of the plot does not hold up to close scrutiny, and individual events often seem contrived. The film also wades into deeper philosophical waters than it can handle, making pronouncements about religion that it doesn’t have time to argue in depth.
These issues do not stop Angels & Demons from being a well-crafted, entertaining watch. Give it a shot when you feel like something from the serious, mystery-driven side of the thriller genre. Viewers prone to nitpicking should steer clear, as Angels & Demons aims just high enough to make itself an irresistible target. Newcomers to the series can safely watch the movies in either order, as the plot has no real ties to The Da Vinci Code.
6.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for a striking plot, an interesting premise, and solid execution, let down some by plot holes and philosophical quibbles.