Although the bestselling novel by Dan Brown, Angels & Demons is the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, director Ron Howard chose to film it as a sequel to the 2006 Hollywood blockbuster. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard professor of “symbology,” Robert Langdon. The brooding professor flies to Italy to unlock the secret of 400-year-old symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival from the threat of a secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati.
Like The Da Vinci Code, the Vatican may call for a boycott of Angels & Demons due to perceived anti-Catholic sentiment in the film. Controversy may help the film’s popularity. The storyline of the sequel corresponds to that of The Da Vinci Code and employs similar themes, often to the point of monotony. Once again, Langdon is hot on the murder trail of a comely co-star’s relative who has ties to a dangerous underground organisation. Parellelling the first film, with Audrey Tatou as the female lead, the second film has Italian physicist Vittoria Vetra, played by Israeli actress, Ayelet Zurer, working with Langdon after her physicist father is murdered.
Together they discover a plot to murder four cardinals. Even worse, a nuclear device is hidden in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City and Langdon and Vetra embark on an action-packed race against time, through all manner of deadly situations, to stop it from going off. Angel & Demons is more fast-paced than its predecessor, which you may appreciate if you found The Da Vinci Code long-winded. Fans of the first film and of Dan Brown’s entertaining novels should catch this film. For the rest of us, Angels & Demons is nothing to write home about.
Cast Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Hanks Director Ron Howard Runtime 140 mins
Text Maybritt Rasmussen
This review can also be found on the KLue website over here.
Article taken from KLue Magazine May 2009, Issue 127
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