This movie made me love and visit Rome

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2016)

An exceptional film on so many levels, Angels & Demons combines an exciting and compelling story with interesting characters and some amazing visuals. The latter are, of course, due to Ron Howard's visionary direction, but to the remarkable setting as well. I regard Rome as the most beautiful city I've ever visited, where antiquity, Renaissance and modernity meet. My love for Rome, however, wasn't sparked until I saw Angels & Demons. For me there is hardly a more exciting premise than to explore all the ancient and Renaissance artwork and buildings in a fast-paced treasure-hunt. Dan Brown has a talent for weaving a twisted and involving plot around these historical events and famous sights. After seeing Angels & Demons I traveled to Rome and visited all the major locations as well as smaller ones like the Chigi Chapel and Santa Maria della Vittoria.
At some points, the story may appear somewhat far-fetched, but if you are willed to ignore some of the historical errors (like the myth of ''La Purga''), this film offers you not only code-solving in a scavenger-hunt, but a real historical sightseeing tour. What is truly exceptional about this movie is that the major part of the plot takes place over the course of about 7 hours, as well as at night, making for a particularly tense and dark atmosphere. In general, Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp's script even improves on the mostly already good novel, i.a. by adding a great prologue and cutting out the love story (which is refreshing to see in a big blockbuster) and some over-the-top moments like Langdon jumping out of a helicopter. The character's are mostly well-drawn, especially Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, brilliantly portrayed by Ewan McGregor whose calm yet emotional acting gets the viewer involved in his fate. McKenna is a really ambivalent and layered villain with terrible means but nevertheless understandable motivations. The assassin, very well portrayed by Nikolaj Lie Kaas, is more than the average action movie assassin as well. While he is cruel, he is shown to regret some of his deeds and to have some moral principles. It is unrealistic, though, that he can conduct the executions on St. Peter's Square and on Piazza Navona unnoticed (the latter being way too under-crowded compared to the usual Roman evening). Pierfrancesco Favino gives a very convincing performance as Inspector Ollivetti, as does Stellan Skarsgård as Commander Richter, though it isn't clear why he is so hostile to Langdon. Unfortunately, Ayelet Zurer is not that memorable as female lead Vittoria Vetra, and does not manage to stand out and show her presence on screen compared to the strong presence that Tom Hanks has. He, as usual, delivers a solid performance, with some dramatic and even some subtly funny moments.
Director Ron Howard and DP Salvatore Totino really create a visually stunning movie with an appropriate style. Many location shots are beautiful compositions of camera movement, colors and lighting. This applies both at night – to scenes at Castel Sant'Angelo, at The Fountain of the Four Rivers and to the stunning VFX establishing shot of the crowded St. Peter's Square – and in daylight, to the aerial establishing shots of St. Peter's Basilica and the Pantheon. Other notable cinematography includes tracking shots of white smoke rising in the Sistine Chapel's chimney, resembling the Antimatter-pipe tracking shot at CERN, which underlines the film's central theme: the connection between religion and science. A major part of the film consists of fast-paced sequences, in which the arc of suspense is kept high with a lot of clever action, and Howard understands to stage that and the code-solving very cinematically in scenes like Langdon discovering St. Peter's Square and Bernini's Four Rivers are the second and fourth altar of science, respectively. Most of the exposition is given ''on the run'', avoiding it to be boring. Nevertheless, Howard does not miss to give the film and the audience time to breathe, with scenes like Langdon washing and redressing himself, emphasizing his emotional involvement in the events, and with some beautiful imagery, too, like the statue of St. Teresa slowly melting after the fire action scene. There are some sequences that do not quite live up to the rest of the movie, e.g. the whole sequence at CERN, or Langdon trapped in the Archives' vault, which – though a suspenseful scene – does not really push the narrative forward. I appreciate, however, the producers' bold choice to include the brutal, hence striking and powerful imagery of the cardinals' executions in the theatrical version.
Since the crew was only partly allowed to shoot in Rome, Production Designer Allan Cameron and his team had to rebuild all the great architecture and artwork. He and his Art Director recreated the sets with so much detail that the transition is hardly recognizable. The Behind-the-scenes-footage shows the commitment of the whole crew in creating this film, which was worth while, for I think the Production Design in Angels & Demons is really Oscar-worthy. The major Visual Effects shots include CGI extensions of sets that were rebuilt only partial (like the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, and St. Peter's Square) and look all very realistic and impressive. The most Oscar-worthy part of the film however, is Hans Zimmer's score. Though he did reuse themes from The Da Vinci Code, he rearranged them, and made an impressive mixture of old-fashioned choir movements with strings and modern fast-paced orchestral pieces with synthesizer elements. Particularly great music plays during the Prologue, the great scene showing the preparation of the Conclave, and in the songs ''Air'' and ''160 BPM'', another showcase of Hans Zimmer's minimalist but ingenious technique of developing a single motive into an epic orchestral climax.
In the end, Angels & Demons is one of my favorite movies of all time for so many reasons, and its few flaws do not even begin to matter against the merits, excitement and beauty that Ron Howard, Hans Zimmer and company put into this film.