Movie review: Angels & Demons, 6.5 out of 10

May 16, 11:56 PMBaltimore Movie ExaminerTom Clocker

The Good

Angels & Demons is a very well-paced movie. There is an element of “beat the clock” that the characters must deal with and this gives the film a sense of constant motion. There is no chance for the plot to lull. So, in that sense, it is a much faster, more action packed movie than The Da Vinci Code. The acting was pretty good across the board, and the places that it lacked a little were more of a writing issue.

The score was fantastic. Hans Zimmer impresses once again with tension building, moment capturing music. Visually the film was very appealing as well. There are times when it is apparent that the filmmakers were forced to digitally enhance or create certain buildings or scenes, but they were done pretty well and there was never a time when a scene looked “fake.”

Overall, the movie was enjoyable. It had an interesting enough plot, though easy to predict at times. Of course, the film went with a twist ending, and this was a welcome change as the “obvious” ending would have been a letdown. You won’t feel like you wasted your money with this movie, but it falls well short of a mind-bending thrill ride.

The Bad

The biggest disappointment was how superficial the story turned out to be. It seems like it took every cliché in the “suspenseful thriller” playbook and force fed them to us. Every piece of the puzzle that Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) had to figure out was either just in the nick of time, or not quite in the nick of time. The characters that the writers wanted you to think were the villains were played up too much to the point it was obvious they would not turn out to be the bad guys. About halfway through the film you realize they will pull a twist ending and start to think who or what may turn out to be the twist. It’s not too hard to figure out either!

There was nowhere near as much “history” involved with solving the puzzle in this film as there was in The Da Vinci Code. The few scenes that Langdon “researched” the Illuminati and the history of the Catholic Church were very short and did not explain much. The writers sacrificed a lot of these scenes to give the audience the fast pace almost as if to make us forget that the story is about as deep as a plastic “kiddie” pool.

The pace of the plot and the use of all the old tricks shows that the film tried to keep the audience on the edge of their seat from start to finish, and it may have worked years ago. However, anyone who has seen these suspenseful “who done it” type of thrillers will see right through the gimmicks and realize there is nothing new. Obviously, the writers were trying to stick to source material, but a film “adaptation” can usually take liberties to help translate it from print to screen.

It is obvious this story would work better as a book.

Bottom Line

As far as thrillers or historical fiction mysteries go, this is a decent film. If you’ve already seen X-men Origins: Wolverine and Star Trek and you can’t wait for Terminator Salvation next weekend, then this is worth the time and money. Just don’t expect it to be more than it is: an average “who done it” thriller.