..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

Angels and Demons
Directed by Ron Howard

Movies like Angels and Demons make me wish I was watching them while reclined in a comfy beach chair while slathered in SPF30: they aren't particularly intellectually challenging, they're fast-paced and, if you're into conspiracy theories, they're decent fun. Actually, even if you're not into conspiracy theories, they're still fun, because you can enjoy ripping the holes in the plot to shreds over coffee with your friends after you see it.

Once again, we have Tom Hanks (with better hair this time) loping around Europe as Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology. Like many professors, Langdon has written books on his field of study; unlike many professors (save Indiana Jones, of course), the books he writes keep getting him sucked into conspiracy theories and matters of global importance, and frequently make him the target of gunfire.

Langdon, unluckily for him, finds himself summoned to the Vatican because of a threat that appears to be coming from a source he's has researched heavily and written about; the Illuminati, that ancient, fabled secret brotherhood of science and knowledge, has apparently come out of hiding with some 21st century terrorist tactics.

The female along for the ride in Angels and Demons is sexy scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), a physicist who, along with a colleague, has recently managed to create a big blob of antimatter, or, as it's referred to in the film, a God Particle -- scientific proof of the process of creation.

As an aside, I love how Brown has to make his female characters -- Audrey Tautou's detective in Da Vinci, Zurer's Vittoria here -- both brainy and uncommonly sexy. Not that there aren't attractive female whatever-physicists in existence, but, come on! Out of all the chick super-brain physicists out there, the one who happens to complete this momentously important scientific quest is also built like a supermodel and gorgeous, too? What are the odds of that?

Which is part of the aforesaid suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy a film like Angels and Demons: if you can't get past the statistical unlikelihood of the above, how can you possibly ignore other things, like the bad guy managing to steal a sealed container of the antimatter from a guarded, super-secret research facility in Switzerland? A container which, by the way, will blow a LOT of shit up if the batteries go dead. Which is in something like 12 hours by the time they figure out who has the antimatter and that they have no idea where it is, but it's probably somewhere under the Vatican, and will destroy Vatican City and part of Rome, at least, if it goes off. Tick, tick.

We know that the lovely and smart Vittoria was instrumental in creating this extremely volatile substance in a greater quantity that it has ever been produced before, but she's not smart enough to have thought far enough ahead to ensure that the battery pack had double (better yet, quadruple) backups. Just in case, you know, it was stolen by a terrorist. And that's one of the easier plot contrivances to get past.

By the end, the plot is revealed to be even more convoluted and bizarre than you previously thought, and you've seen a lot of burnt flesh and witnessed many things requiring you to further suspend your disbelief -- explosions, intrusions into burial vaults, a helicopter. Along the way, you've probably been at least somewhat entertained by Hanks running around breathlessly and arguing with the head of the Swiss Guard (Stellan Skarsgard, good here), who vastly underestimates the extent of the problem they're faced with, and with Ewan MacGregor who, as the camerlengo (that's pope's assistant, for those who haven't studied the structure of the Church), trudges along earnestly no matter what ridiculous things he's asked to do or say, as if hoping good acting alone might elevate the material to more than what it is.

Production-wise, the film is well-directed, and the production design is stunning, particularly when you consider they had to build the Vatican on set. The cinematography and editing are solid and Hans Zimmer's score (he was also composer for The Dark Knight) is fine, although it occasionally tugs harder on the emotions (especially tension) than is merited by what we see onscreen.

I can't blame Howard for the problems with the storyline, as the script does pretty much paint the broad strokes from Dan Brown's novel -- and, for what it's worth, I think he's made about as good a movie as it's possible to make from the source material. Unfortunately, in the need to keep the script to a reasonable length they had to cut a good deal, and a lot of what was cut were the underlying details of character and plot that allowed me to suspend disbelief and stay engaged with the book, whereas while watching the movie, my attention kept wandering to things like the mysteries of the Catholic Church requiring its lofty leaders to wear long red gowns with lacy white under-dresses.

Oh, it looks pretty, it clicks along at a nice pace, and the storyline, while frequently unbelievable, is at least interesting enough to hold your attention while you try to follow it; in short, folks who thought The Da Vinci Code was awesome (and there were a lot of you) will probably like Angels and Demons just fine, while those with no patience for conspiracy theories, or devout Catholics very sensitive to any idea their church is being slighted, or those who actually prefer more substance than fluff in their movies, won't find much here to satisfy. It's entertaining enough for what it is, but like the book from which it was adapted, Angels and Demons is light beach reading (or summer viewing), not meant to satisfy your artistic soul.



-by Kim Voynar

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