It isn't very usual that I could get to watch two great movies in a row (when it isn't awards season). The previous week we got to watch "Star Trek" which I totally raved about, and now we watched "Angels & Demons". We watched this at the SM Mall of Asia while waiting for the David-David concert. This is the first time I have ever been denied a ticket because a showing was completely sold out! So we watched the next showing in another cinema there and that too turned out to be sold out. Amazing.
Anyway, back to the movie. "Angels and Demons" is actually my favorite Dan Brown book, more than the more popular "The Da Vinci Code." Even when I was just reading A&D, you already get a sense of how cinematic the entire story was. Apart from the obvious travelogue interest in the Rome and Vatican locales where the action takes place, we also get a closer look into the inner workings of the Vatican and the fabled history of the Illuminati.
"Angels and Demons" the movie stayed quite loyal to the main storyline of the book. The Pope just died and the Cardinals are in conclave to elect a new Pope. Before that could happen however, a terrorist kidnapped four favored Cardinals and starts to kill them ceremonially in various locations, invoking the Church's historical dispute with the Illuminati. This terrorist does all this while holding the entire Vatican City under threat of annihilation with a powerful anti-matter explosive. The plot, especially the ending, is admittedly very unlikely and highly over-the-top but it makes for a perfect summer blockbuster.
For me, the most interesting character in A&D is the enigmatic Camerlengo. He is the priest who is the dead Pope's closest aide and confidante, and who temporarily holds the Papal powers while the new Pope has yet to be elected. I remember I was very fascinated with this character because I have never heard of such a position in the Vatican, even after years of Catholic education. I learned afterwards that Dan Brown fictionalized this part as a real Camerlengo should be a Cardinal, an elector and possible candidate for Pope, unlike what was written in the book. The movie makes major changes in the character of this Camerlengo. In the book, his name is Carlo Ventresca, a young Italian priest. In the movie, he becomes Patrick McKenna, a young Irish priest who used to fly military missions against the IRA. I do not know if these modifications were made to fit the actor who played him, Ewan McGregor, or vice versa.
The movie also works for me on a personal level. My wife and I spent some days of our honeymoon in Rome and the Vatican so we enjoyed revisiting the sights as they appeared onscreen, like the Pantheon, St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and Castel Sant' Angelo. During that exciting scene with the fourth Cardinal, we recalled that afternoon we spent at the Piazza Navona, just sitting down a bench there, and quietly admiring the beautiful Fountain of the Four Rivers.
Unfortunately, the main debit of the movie for me is still the actor playing the main character, Robert Langdon. Tom Hanks is completely wrong as Robert Langdon. It did not work in DVC, nor did it work here in A&D. The other members of the cast did very well in their roles. Israeli stunner Ayelet Zurer made a very good Vittoria Vetra. She is much better than Audrey Tatou was in DVC. Stellan Skargaard and Armin Muller Stahl were solid and imposing as Commander Richter and Cardinal Strauss respectively. It was a bit of a stretch to imagine Ewan MacGregor as a priest, much less the Camerlengo, but he was not bad at all.
So overall, this is a very good and exciting summer movie. Ron Howard did much better in this one than DVC. As before, do not take everything seriously as this is fiction. For those who have not read the book, read it! And later, you will be enticed to research more about Vatican lore, the Papacy, and the Illuminati, as I was, to distinguish what is fact from the fiction.
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