Angels and Demons

Cast: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor
Directed by: Ron Howard

Robert Langdon is back for another adventure. This time, it directly involves the Roman Catholic Church. The pope has recently died, and while its time for the election of a new Pope, the top four candidates were kidnapped. At the same time, a top secret research facility which houses a sample of generated anti-matter was breached-- one of the anti-matter samples was stolen. The anti-matter sample is so strong, it can wipe the whole of Vatican City if ever it diffuses, in this case--if the batteries of the antimatter container dies down. It only took a while before it was revealed that the the kidnappings of the pope, and the stealing of the anti-matter sample is done by only one organization: the Illuminati. And with the threat of the anti-matter and the on going elections of the pope, the Catholic church is in disarray. Robert Langdon was called into the scene to investigate and help on his expertise on symbols to decipher the Illuminati clues.

All in all, I can say that its a good movie. Definitely much better than the sleep inducing movie adaptation of Davinci Code. It's fast paced, and once scene shifts fast to another. I can say there's no boring part where Langdon babbles in length this time around! The acting was good too--everybody did their jobs. Another plus is that Tom Hanks is no longer sporting that weird mullet haircut he did in the first movie! LOL.

And before you ask--yes, I DIDN'T READ the book. Probably the reason why I didn't have much complaints! And as always, I after I read or watch something, I google for more information about it. It turns out, the movie adaptation CHANGED THE NAMES of the cast save for Robert Langdon and the female lead! They also changed key parts of the novel such as how the Hassasin has dies, cut down significant back stories, and how the movie ended. These things are definitely sacrilegious for die hard fans of the book! If ever I read the book before I saw the movie, I would have definitely given this movie a bad review! Haha!

Another thing, this movie is treated as a SEQUEL! I remember that Che and I had a discussion on the way home. The discussion was about Angels and Demons being a SEQUEL and not a PREQUEL. I always knew that Angels and Demon is a PREQUEL to the Davinci Code. The discussion started when Che told us that it was a SEQUEL daw. I read the Davinci Code throughly, with Dom as my discussion mate during that time (around third year college). I skipped Angels and Demons, and lend Dom the book instead. Having read the Davinci Code, I was skeptical with Che's claim that Angels and Demons was a sequel! Haha!

So after I got home, I googled stuff and confirmed that I was right all along-- Angels and Demons is a PREQUEL of the Davinci Code. The story is set BEFORE the Davinci Code. And the book itself was published BEFORE The Davinci Code. (A&D was published in 2000, while Davinci was published in 2003). It's just that The Davinci Code was a more popular book, that only Angels and Demons garnered attention after the second book was released and became a best seller, which gave people the impression that it was a sequel rather than a prequel.

Che's partially correct though-- the MOVIE VERSION was treated as a SEQUEL! It was director Ron Howard's idea because he wanted to portray Robert Langdon as a more confident character this time around. It won't just make sense though, treating it as a sequel. In this movie, Langdon is still that hard nosed atheist--and if they were treating this as a sequel, then all that battle of religious beliefs and meeting the ancestor of Christ is all for nothing and wouldn't make any sense! LOL! Another point for the die hard Dan Brown readers to cast hate on this movie!

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and thought it was good. Again, because I didn't read the book first. It was fast paced and had more action involved this time around to keep things more interesting, and it was a welcomed change from the first movie. Plus, I have to mention again that Tom Hanks is no longer sporting that odd haircut from the first movie! Another big plus! ;p
Score: 8/10

**On a side note, I finally saw the trailer for Drag Me To Hell! I was eagerly awaiting for this film. The reason? I'm a big Sam Raimi fan! And after they said that this movie will be in the vein of The Evil Dead series (which made me a Raimi fan in the first place), I was stoked! Finally, I had the chance to see the trailer for the first time--and I can say that this movie looks good! Downright creepy with that demon old lady gypsy, whatever she is. Reminded me of the good 'ol deadites of the old! Also, they better put a Bruce Campbell cameo in there or everyone will be disappointed! :D

Here's the trailer! (Note, this YouTube video doesn't do trailer justice.. it looked better in the theater!)