‘Angels & Demons’ is Flawed, but Worthy
-----I hated ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ I thought it was laughable, poorly executed, and a waste of my time. It was like ‘Indiana Jones’ if he stayed in the library. Naturally, I wasn’t excited for this sequel, which really only has protagonist Robert Langdon in common with its predecessor. Mercifully, I was surprised to find that it was entertaining, thanks mostly to the efforts of Ewan McGregor and Ron Howard.
-----‘Angels & Demons’ follows the story of symbolist Robert Langdon. The Pope has died, and four Cardinals, the favorites to replace the Pope, have been kidnapped. The secretive anti-Catholic Illuminati once thought extinct is behind it. Leaving clues to the whereabouts of the Cardinals, Langdon is called in to track them down before they are all killed. That’s not all the Illuminati have planned, however, they’ve also threatened to destroy all of Vatican City with a unique bomb they’ve stolen.
-----Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon, the man whose controversy with the Catholic Church has lead to his involvement in the story at hand. I’ve never really liked Hanks. I don’t know why, maybe it’s his character choice or just the persona he goes back to often, like the Langdon character. Regardless, I respect that he’s done some good work. I don’t think ‘Angels & Demons’ is some of that good work. He’s bearable for the sake of the script, but I never connected with him. I don’t like his character much at all, nor do I care for his portrayal. There’s a little too much of him figuring stuff out on screen, and it starts to hurt the pace. Ayelet Zurer plays somewhat-sidekick to Hanks, Vittoria Vetra. Her role is very over-advertised as she ends up with a relatively small role in the film. There’s no real development of her, and I quickly lost interest in her character and motives. The film’s real performance comes from an actor I always seem to enjoy, Ewan McGregor as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna. He’s more-or-less the head of the Catholic Church while they await the election of the new Pope. His character is the only one I connected with, or even really liked. He’s able to win the audience’s sympathy with a just a few scenes here and there. Ultimately, McGregor’s performance is one of the primary reasons I enjoyed the film.
-----While I have not read ‘Angels & Demons,’ I’m certain it works better as a book. As a film, one of its primary problems is pacing. The movie starts out fast, then slows down…then picks up again, then slows down again. There’ll be about ten minutes of intensity and fast paced action as the plot speeds ahead, followed by about a half hour of explanations and busy work for the sake of the plot’s legitimacy. In book form, you can take breaks, and then come back to the action, ready for the next segment; but as a film it all has to come at once. Taking place for the most part in one night as Langdon races to save the Cardinals from their Steelers (ha ha)—save the Cardinals from the Illuminati, the explanations and subplots are forced to be hammered out whenever they can. The film thereby loses rhythm, and its audience, in the process. This leads to another one of the film’s problems, its length. Normally I enjoy a two-and-a-half hour epic, but due to the very problematic pacing, ‘Angel’s & Demons’ feels overly long, with a number of scenes that seem ultimately unnecessary. This causes the movie as a whole to come off as a bit forgetful, with only a few key scenes shining through. For instance, I quickly gave up on following the trail with Langdon and instead just trusted that he knew what he was doing. Many scenes too are, unfortunately, forced to be squeezed in wherever they can, so the characters get odd portions of screen time. There will be about twenty minutes of Langdon’s investigation, and then fifteen with the situation occurring in the Vatican. Even worse is when there are short, two-minute checkups on everything that’s going on and you start to lose interest in the proceedings. Of course, at that point, brilliant Director Ron Howard brings you home with a scene that brings the emotion back to the surface.
-----I’m a Protestant myself, so while I’m certainly not an expert on the Catholic Church, I never felt like the film went to an offensive level with it’s portrayal of Christianity. Langdon is, of course, not a Christian himself, and perhaps that’s why I had trouble directly relating with his cause. As the debate of science and religion is one of the film’s major themes, I felt that it respected both sides of the issue in a reasonable light. The line that really did it for me was one near the end where Cardinal Strauss (played by Armin Mueller-Stahl) tells Langdon, “Religion is flawed…but only because man is flawed.” This was one of the better moments in the film, and an excellent display of the strong script as well. It’s these scenes among some of the more intense and suspenseful ones where Ron Howard’s skill truly shines through. He also provides what feels like an insider’s look to the proceedings of the Catholic Church, another of the film’s more interesting aspects.
-----Technically, the film is a success. The cinematography on the beautiful streets of Rome is one of the film’s boast-worthy points. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit some of the locations in the film, and it was great to see them captured so well in the midst of the action. The musical score is also one of the better ones I’ve heard in awhile, coming from the very skilled Hans Zimmer. He may be the best working in the industry today, providing the scores for such hits as, ‘Kung Fu Panda’ and the ‘The Dark Knight.’ He has a keen sense for what type of movie he’s making, and expertly sets a mood for the film. Here, he effectively captures an upbeat score that blends traditional sounds you’d expect to hear echoing through a cathedral, and the thrills expected from a big budget action event.
-----If not for problems with pacing, and my overall nonchalant feelings bout the main protagonist, ‘Angels & Demons’ could be a keeper. There’s also an ending surprise, that while surprising and reasonably executed, seems thrown in almost as a token-twist. It surfaces just a bit too easily for me, and actually only further alienates me from the film’s leads. The movie’s closure, however, is especially impressive; courtesy once again Howard’s skill. In due course, ‘Angels & Demons’ definitely has a fair amount going for it, one being the surprising use of character perceptions throughout the movie. Just when you think you’ve got a character pegged, they’ll do or say something you didn’t expect, completely altering your view of them. Unfortunately, the bottom line is, you can’t expect to be a great movie without the essential aspects of relatable protagonists, and solid, coherent pacing. Despite these flaws however, ‘Angels & Demons’ still has a few excellent scenes scattered throughout its runtime, and will certainly please those who are intrigued by the trailer and source material.
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