Angels and Demons [DVD] [2009]

Considering how enjoyable the critically derided Da Vinci Code turned out to be if you didn't take it seriously, it's surprising how weak the slightly better reviewed follow-up turned out. The kind of film that manages to look at once expensive and cheap, it's a lot less effective than the first film - the casting is much poorer, the script considerably weaker (especially one big rallying speech) and the absence of flashback montages makes the exposition seem far more perfunctory than its predecessor, not least because Hanks seems so bored with it all for much of the movie. Even the literal ticking clock device that drives the plot fails to produce any tension despite the high stakes, the villain and his motivation fairly obvious through heavy-handed writing and a couple of strikingly unconvincingly acted scenes long before the absurd sequence involving an anti-matter bomb, a helicopter and a parachute...

Despite the location and material giving it the slight veneer of a mainstream Hollywood stab at a giallo (Dario Argento in his prime could have had a field day with this one), everything is more run-of-the-mill here - even the internal Vatican politics play like the kind of TV miniseries that went out of fashion in the 70s, complete with a feelgood finale that sees its medieval conspiracy theory proved a blind and its atheist hero firmly back in God's good books to reassure the faithful that God is in his heaven and all's well with the Church. It's watchable but uninspired, feeling more like a film that was rushed into production to cash-in on its predecessor as quickly as possibly rather than something that took a few years to reach the screen.

While the US region-free two-disc Blu-ray offers a decent selection of featurettes, only three of them have made it to the single-disc UK Blu-ray, though that does at least include both the original 138-minute theatrical version and the 146-minute extended cut.

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!

If you haven't read the book the film may be enjoyable, yet having read Angels and demons i can't say i enjoyed the film at all. I don't see why people feel angels and demons is a bad book, i thought the book was fascinating and could not put it down, the film on the other hand was disappointing. The plot of the book is intricate and fast paced so i cannot comprehend why when transferring it onto screen they would wish to deviate from the original plot, the changes made removed some of the mystery and a lot of the understanding of the events that happen and the reasoning behind them. By all means go out and read the book but when it comes to the film i wouldn't recommend it.