Angels & Demons

Rating: 4/10 (20 October 2013)

Director Ron Howard (Splash, The Paper, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind) returned for this sequel to The Da Vinci Code, based on the book of the same name by Dan Brown, and from the trailer I saw I hoped it would be good. Basically the Large Hadron Collider has been activated at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and three antimatter vials are made, but immediately after this Father Silvano Bentivoglio (Carmen Argenziano), watching the experiment alongside Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Man of Steel's Ayelet Zurer), is killed and one of the vials is taken. At the same time in Rome the Vatican must decide on a new pope after Pope Pius XVI has died, with Camerlengo Patrick McKenna taking temporary control, the four men favourite to be elected are kidnapped by the Illuminati, and they are threatening to kill one of these four candidates every hour, and destroy Vatican City at midnight with the vial which would be used as a bomb. Symbologist Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) from Harvard and Vittoria from CERN are summoned by the Vaticans to help the four men and stop the bomb, Langdons deduces from a clue that they will be killed in four locations with altars and angel statues relevant to the "Path of Illumination" and the concept of the five classic elements, earth, wind, fire, water and the mystery element (assumed to be sky). One by one they track each man, whether in time and successful in rescuing them or not, and they are all confirmed to be in churches with names related to the elements, whether in foreign language or alternative meanings, but if they are too late the men will die in extremely painful ways, but all men are marked by heated branding with the word relevant to the element and fate. While Langdon and Vittoria follow the clues and hope to find one of the four men in each location they determine, the Vatican are voting and trying to come to a conclusion of who will elected the next pope, but the four men missing, or any of them reported to be found dead is making this difficult. Following the locating of the four men, the fifth they eventually deduce is McKenna, he is found branded, and despite his severe injury by branding he goes to help find the vial and its attached explosive device in the location that has been determined, below the church of St. Peter's Tomb, its battery life is low and will explode soon. In desperation to stop the destruction of Vatican City the vial is taken by McKenna, who was formerly a military pilot, and a helicopter takes him high above the city, the antimatter vial explodes when all lights on its indicator have faded, a blast wave causes pressure and minor damage below, and following this McKenna appears on a parachute and is praised a hero. However, Langdon and Vittoria are shown a video of the events before finding McKenna with the brand on his chest, he did it to himself, he also masterminded the kidnapping of the four candidates and the theft of the vial, this was to ensure he would become pope, and when McKenna realises he has been exposed he runs to the nearest holy building and commits suicide, setting himself on fire. The Vatican make the announcement that McKenna died from injuries related to the parachute fall, Cardinal Baggia (Marc Fiorini) becomes Pope Luke I, Langdon is allowed the material he needed from the Vatican to complete his latest book, but they request any mention of the the Catholic Church in his future work is gentle. Also starring Stellan Skarsgård as Commander Richter, Pierfrancesco Favino as Inspector Olivetti, Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Mr Gray / Assassin, Armin Mueller-Stahl as Cardinal Strauss, Thure Lindhardt as Chartrand, David Pasquesi as Claudio Vincenzi and Cosimo Fusco as Father Simeon. Hanks is still good being intelligent and charming, McGregor is good with his time on screen being mysterious (and I assumed, rightly, from the trailer that he was the villain), and the supporting cast are all okay, the problem is the, the action is good and following the clues is alright, but it is not paced that well, the dialogue is corny, and it is just is not as gripping as the previous and much more interesting film, a disappointing but just about watchable enough mystery thriller. Okay!