Angels and Demons - Review

Why you might want to watch it:

• One of the most anticipated Hollywood Flicks of 2009
• Director Ron Howard returns after the brilliant Frost Nixon (2008) and the first Dan Brown flick Da Vinci Code (2006)
• You loved the book and can't wait to see if the screen adaptation matches up to it 

The Good: Racy, Decent plot, Great Background Score (Hans Zimmer) 
The Bad: Lacks the depth of the book and the subtle nuances and subplots are missing  

Look out for: Ewan McGregor as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna

Bottomline: While Da Vinci Code might have been the book that made Dan Brown an International phenomenon, personally I found Angels and Demons a more enthralling read. The racy plot is set in the Vatican as the church prepares for the election of the new pope. Four Cardinals (The preferratti or the most likely successors) are kidnapped and three vials of antimatter (Highly explosive) go missing from a lab (CERN) in Geneva. The Illuminati (an old enemy of the Church) claims responsibility and threatens to blow up the Vatican with the antimatter. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks in a weird hairdo), teams up with the CERN physicist Vittoria Vertra (The Israeli actress, Ayelet Zurer) to unravel the plot. Angels and Demons has no time to delve deep into the fascinating elements, subplots and historical references that made the novel a fascinating read. But for me as a standalone movie it works; it is racy and fairly gripping but I felt the visuals did not do justice to the backdrop of Rome and the Vatican. Any comparisons to the book are unfair because Ron Howard had to make a film that is entertaining to a diverse global audience without losing the essence of the plot at a running time of under 150 minutes; and the end result? - A film certainly worth a watch!

Useful Links: Official Website

Running Time (Approx): 138 min