An entertaining film...just not the great one it could have been

Rating: 5/10 (20 May 2009)

First and foremost Angels & Demons has lots missing from the book where pages upon pages seem to have been left on the script floor and for good reason otherwise it would have stretched into a 4 hour movie! And soon becomes apparent this where director Ron Howard seems to have changed tactics from the first offering of the Dan Brown franchise in that the Da Vinci code left you constantly confused at times as this doesn't and he serves up an action paced average thriller. The story centres around Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) who is summoned by the Vatican (after the sudden death of the pope) to solve a new threat involving a small problem of anti-matter which gets stolen from the infamous CERN by an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati who along the way have kidnapped four cardinals.
Teaming up with Langdon to play this cat and mouse game is CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra (Zurer) who thought would have been a bit of a love interest for Langdon...but no thankfully Howard doesn't allow for this.
The other main character in the film is Irish speaking Patrick Mckenna played by Ewan McGregor who appears as the villain from a long way off but McGregor does giving a convincing performance in this role.
So as Langdon and Vetra rush from cathedral to cathedral solving the puzzles in the eight hour time-frame before the anti-matter explodes wiping out the entire city and it is here that Ron Howard gives the film its best bits with stunning sets of Rome and it is quite easily to see that this is where most of the budget as been spent.
There are two problems with the end of the film which appear very unbelievable as you will see for yourself if you choose to watch it.
I think Ron Howard sold stick to make first rate films such as Apollo Thirteen and Frost\Nixon and next time leave the Dan Brown novels at home because it is to clear to see it hasn't worked with the first two outings.
To summarise then if you want be entertained for two and a bit hours by an average thriller then please go and watch A&D but don't expect the book version and remember as with all great novels....they do not always make great films.