Mystery meets history

Rating: 7/10 (5 December 2009)

Physicist being murdered for antimatter, 4 Cardinals being kidnapped and killed one at a time by the Illuminati, and a symbolist from Harvard trying to stop it. Angels & Demons presents a large problem and only a small amount of time to save the Cardinals, the Vatican and the Catholic religion as we know it.
Robert Langdon, Tom Hanks, comes to Rome to help solve the mystery of the Illuminati, a secret society that is against faith and religion The Pope has died and the four cardinals that are his likely replacement have been kidnapped. It is Langdon's job to decipher the clues and find our where the preferiti are before they are killed one by one. While he tries to connect the clues he is paired up with a lovely physicist Vittoria Vetra, Ayelete Zurer, who helps Langdon piece together this puzzle and will hopefully retrieve the antimatter and return it safely back to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Angels & Demons shows that devotion and loyalty drive many of us and sometimes we too easily justify our actions as a testimonial to our faith. Camerlengo, Patrick McKenna's devotion to the church allows him to justify his actions as doing God's work. Langdon's devotion to his work allows him to put aside his differences with the Vatican to try to stop the Illuminati and save the preferiti. Vetra is loyal to her fathers work and wants to secure the antimatter and continue her fathers quest.
A similar devotion theme can be seen in the Nation Treasure movies where Ben Gates, Nicholas Cage is devoted to clearing the Gates name and proves that the treasure his family spoke about for years really exists. Gates has to follow clues and piece together history to locate the treasure which is quite similar to Langdon's role in Angels & Demons.
Director Ron Howard uses several techniques to keep the audience interested and to develop the universal theme of devotion. By creating conflict between the Illuminati he introduced the devotion theme at the very beginning. The Vatican is so devoted to saving it's religion from the scrutiny of others that is puts aside its differences and solicits the help of Langdon. In one of the open scenes Langdon is swimming and a Vatican official asks for help. Langdon is hesitant but his underlying devotion to his work influences him to go to Rome and decipher the symbols that will help him trace the "Path of Illumination."
Angels & Demons combines mystery with history. Your loyalty and devotion will be called into question but your faith will remain intact.