Underhyped: Angels & Demons Film Review

On release, Angels & Demons, a 2009 film adaptation of the 2000 Dan Brown novel, was by and large critically panned. It still made a large amount of money, however-to the tune of more than $485 million worldwide (#). Does this make it a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen blockbuster, that didn't deserve the money thrown at it? I argue that this film is not only better than its film predecessor, The DaVinci Code, it's a solid action movie in its own right: in short, this movie was underhyped.

The plot, for those that don't know, concerns the theft of antimatter from CERN. Antimatter is so volatile that the small amount contained in the stolen canister could, upon contact with ordinary matter, creative a massive explosion. CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) follows the canister to Vatican City, Rome, where she meets up with the symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks). Langdon has been begrudgingly brought in by the Vatican police to help them discover who has kidnapped four cardinals, the favored ones to replace the recently deceased pope.

It appears, against all odds, that the captors are members of an ancient and long-dead (or so it seemed) underground society, the Illuminati, who were hunted and persecuted by the Catholic church for their heretical beliefs. Now, they are ready to repay the favor in kind: one of the cardinals will die every hour, starting at 8PM. At 12PM, Vatican will be destroyed by the hidden antimatter once the canister's battery dies (and matter and anti-matter meet). So starts a madcap dash around Rome, with Langdon following ancient clues to the Illuminati's hideout. In actuality, however, the real culprit has nothing to do with the Illuminati; the entire plot is an elaborate conspiracy to mastermind the papal elections.

What makes a film a good film is different from what makes a book a compelling read. Dan Brown's plot twists and explanations are often convoluted-he sells it to us with his long explanations of this and that. In a movie, such plot dumps would be long-winded, wasted explanations with boring shots of talking heads-not compelling. Luckily, Langdon has a foil in Vetra, a CERN scientist who tags along because only she can stop the antimatter from going boom in a big way. She knows her Latin a bit better than Langdon, and they work together to solve the puzzles set out for them-snippets of history and the "traditions" of the Illuminati are given in nuggets when they're needed, keeping things moving.

Pacing was further improved by several plot tweaks. As in The DaVinci Code, the seriously anti-Catholic overtones were toned down, but this hardly diminishes the work. Rather, it makes it a bit more personal, more human, and more relatable. Langdon is a man of history who still lacks something in his life-casual touches during the film suggest that he grows through the events of the film into a man, if not of the Catholic faith, then a man of faith, period. It's something unexpected in an action-packed thriller-a sort of moral center that doesn't stuff a message down your throat, but invites a bit of introspection.

On the more syntactic side of things, spare elements that probably were dead weight in the original novel were also dropped here, making for a breezier thrill ride. There are two chief elements worth mentioning: first, as with The DaVinci Code, Langdon's romance is dropped. It made absolutely no sense with old Tom Hanks and very young actress Audrey Tautou then, and while it might have worked here, it was still a side bit that wasn't necessary to the story, so it was good to lose.

More integral to the entire piece, meanwhile, is the very nature of the villain. Like in the book, the pope's killer turns out to be his own camerlengo, who was the adopted son of the Holy Father. In the book, however, it turned out that the camerlengo was biologically the pope's son as well; this discovery and seemingly blatant violation of Catholic oath of celibacy was the biggest reason behind the murder. Here, it's much simpler (and doesn't require explanation into how artificial insemniation would allow the pope to have a child without doing "the deed"); the Pope was receptive to the idea of finding a "god particle" in antimatter, and the chamerlengo was not.

Other more ridiculous elements of the book are also cut, with positive results. Langdon doesn't fly up with the bomb-laden helicopter and somehow get down as in the book, but stays on the ground, avoiding some bad stuntwork. There's no fight in the fountain, with Langdon faking his own death. And finally, the revelation of who is the true killer is handled more swiftly and effectively. The novel ends with a sex scene; the movie ends with an affirming nod from the new pope to Langdon, and an opening onto crowds at St. Peters. It just works better.

Part of the problems with the film is not that there is bad acting-quite the opposite, in fact, with the principals turning in excellent performances (Ewan McGregor's role as the camerlengo is quite good, which goes to show you the man can act when he's not in a George Lucas film) and the minor characters all recognizable and enjoyable (including "those guys you've seen in that movie" and perennially undervalued Pierfrancesco Favino and Armin Mueller-Stahl.)

Rather, the issue is that a large chunk of the plot requires everyone aside from Langdon being rather clueless, to history in general and Catholic history in particular. Essentially they are dumbed down to an extent that it begins to show the shaky foundations of the plot. No matter how much you change a Dan Brown story, it's still not going to withstand a close inspection. Another complaint is that the film's main villain (the hit man and kidnapper) was never fleshed out; we get the feeling he was a devout Catholic, but what brought him to commit such acts is never explained (nor how he has such amazing stealth and targeting skills; the man breaks into several secure locations and takes down entire police squads, putting him squarely into a sort of elite and rather unbelievable status.)

The film's music is again provided by Hans Zimmer, who has always been a rather B-rate A-list composer; while he music services the plot, taken on its own it occasionally feels overwrought and a bit to energetic for the scenes it is accompanying. Special effects are competent and mostly seamless; this is a well-polished movie, and its clear the $150 million budget bought a fair amount for its price.

Overall, Angels & Demons is an excellent action film; while it won't win any awards for being a great picture, it sets out to accomplish a goal, and it succeeds in it. I was thoroughly entertained, and is that not the role of entertainment?

References:
* "Angels & Demons (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Accessed January 14, 2010.
* "Angels & Demons: Official Site: On Location". Columbia Pictures. Accessed January 16, 2010.

Previous Film Reviews by David Fuchs:
Push / Harry Potter VI / Public Enemies / Star Trek / The President's Analyst / Runaway / The Hospital / Easy Rider/ Blue Velvet.