Angels & Demons

Release Date: May 15, 2009 

Runtime: 2 hr. 20 min. 

Director: Ron Howard 

Cast: Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierfrancesco Favino.

It's often difficult to review film adaptations of books I have read several times and know by heart; therefore, I'll break this review into two parts. Unbiased: with more action and less talking, "Angels & Demons" does a far better job in engaging the audience than "The Da Vinci Code." There is more of a cohesive plot and all of the characters have reason to be part of the story. In addition, the music (by Hans Zimmer, of course) keeps the pace of the film moving quickly, while igniting suspense. Biased: this film is pretty much nothing like the book. The writers were overly liberal with the script, taking only the main idea and nothing else. Key characters and elements were missing that would have made the climax more dramatic. Also, the film didn't delve into the controversy between the church and the Illuminati as much as it should have, probably due to the heat from the Vatican. The "assassin" seemed wimpy in comparison to the masochistic murderer in the book. Although Tom Hanks was slightly better than the first, he still lacked the charisma of Robert Langdon. If I had never read the book, this rating would have been higher since the film was overall successful and exciting. However, I must admit I was too busy noticing the discrepancies to really appreciate what could have been. 

Rating: 3 stars