Angels and Demons [DVD] [2009]

Fairly fantastic story well told in the book but doesn't translate very well to the big screen. Characters are shallow due to the fast paced action being the main focus so you don't 'care' about them as you ought. Not a bad film if you like a lot of action and good effects, or even just to see the beauty of Rome's finest!

The first thing to say about this film is that, just as with the corresponding books by Dan Brown, it's better than The Da Vinci Code. But that didn't take much doing because the previous film was pretty awful. In the DVC - both book and film - everyone ran into rooms, pointed at something and immediately said what they were looking at so as to explain the complex plot to an audience of (supposedly) limited intelligence; the stunning difference with Angels & Demons is that everyone says what's going on while they're running around on their way into those rooms. The other major development is that Dr Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks) has had a haircut, definitely a step in the right direction after the absurd mullet he sported in the first film. Incidentally, although half the planet knows this already, the films have been made in a different order to the books, inasmuch as the book Angels & Demons was written first. This doesn't matter very much, but when you're struggling to find something important to say you do find yourself clutching at straws.

I know it's a long way to go before the esteemed Golden Raspberry Awards (the anti-Oscars) but I would like to nominate this film as a prime contender for Most Stupid Film of the Year. On Rotten Tomatoes, they said "the storyline too often wavers between implausible and ridiculous, and does not translate effectively to the big screen". I kind of expected this, having read the book some years ago, but I'm astonished that the producers and director have been able to re-create that idiocy with such dedication and commitment. In a story-line that was very probably rejected by the producers of the BBC's Doctor Who back in the black & white TV days of the 1960s, regarding it as too silly for the 11-year-old children of that era, a tube of anti-matter has been lost and is thought to be secretly buried somewhere in the Vatican - and somebody must find the tube before it explodes and rips a hole in the time-space continuum (not to mention nuking the Holy City of the Vatican) a task complicated by the appointment of a new Pope while the frantic search is going on. But in case this sounds too confusing for you, fear not because most of the words spoken by the monotonous Dr Langdon are little more than reading from the pages of the book in which he explains what's going on and why. Ostensibly he is talking to his female associate Ayelet played by actress Vittoria Vetra, but the truth is that it is all for the benefit of an audience assumed to lack any capacity for such intellectual calculations. These are two people who are experts on the subjects and issues under examination but they feel the need to constantly say out loud what should be plainly obvious to either one of them.

Actually, to draw comparisons with Dr Who is to do a dis-service to the great time lord, because much of the storyline from this film might still need to be beefed up in order to pass for one of the weaker Thunderbirds episodes, with its target audience of primary-school age children. They say action movies can be enjoyable because you don't have to think; well with this it's much the same (minus the enjoyment) because before you've had a chance to think about anything, Tom Hanks explains it for you. Who's the Pope? He's the head of the Roman Catholic faith. Where are they based? In the Vatican. Where's that? It's in Rome. Which is in Italy.

One commonality with the Da Vinci Code is that the first hour or so is snore-inducingly boring, but at least things change halfway through, because from there through to the end it becomes laugh-out-loud funny. This was not intentional of course, but that's the way it turns out, helped in no small part by Ewan McGregor's impossibly absurd Scottish-Italian-Northern Irish accent that shouldn't have a trace of Scottish or Irish in it at all, not to mention his helicopter-flying skills which wouldn't be the first hobby that comes to mind when you're thinking about a Vatican monsignor, and a Cardinal no less. I remember the 'leaping Langdon' helicopter stunt in the book and recall thinking it to be utterly ridiculous, it is beyond comprehension that the people behind this film would so much as consider reproducing it for the screen. But they did.

Although billed as a serious film, this would better fit the genre of such classics as Monty Python; I suspect that more than a few will laugh out loud at the moment of ultimate revelation, the 'let there be light' moment. And although not billed as an action movie blockbuster, who else but director Ron Howard could manage to turn a visit to the Vatican library into a nail-biting action scene, or the announcement of a new Pope? Much of this film, if not all of it, defies credibility or classification, but I would suggest that potential viewers will be best prepared if they expect a Pythonesque comedy drama. Call it Mission Impossible 4: Race to the Vatican, with Gerry Anderson writing the script (he of Thunderbirds fame by the way). This film, despite its guaranteed box-office success given all the hype surrounding it, is a real contender for Most Stupid Film Ever Made, it threatens to dethrone Exorcist II:The Heretic in that regard, and all I can say if you have read this far is: You have been warned. Wait three years and see it free on Channel 5 would be my advice!

DVD INFO (my copy, anyway)

# Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
# Language English
# Subtitles: English, Hindi
# Region: Region 2
# Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
# Number of discs: 1
# No extras, only trailers

I absolutely loved this film, Tom Hanks is superb and actually has some brilliant one-liners. I would definitely recommend it, it's fast paced, keeps you guessing and the end is utterly surprising (unless of course, you've done your homework and read the book, I'm backward, I watch the film then read the book). It does have it's flaws I must say, but for entertainment value, thriller suspense and overall enjoyment I would rate it 5 stars, and definitely the best film I've seen all year of it's kind.