Not perfect but very entertaining, exciting, and suspenseful

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2009)

As a huge fan of the book, I was really excited to see this movie. I read both this and The Da Vinci Code (which actually follows Angels & Demons) before the movie of The Da Vinci Code came out, and while the latter was the one that everyone was crazy about and was the really controversial one, I thought it was a disappointment compared to Angels & Demons, and while it was still a very good book, I wasn't all that impressed with the movie version, and I found myself thinking "I hope they make a movie of Angels & Demons, I bet that'll be a lot better." Well, looks like I got my wish! And I must say that while it inevitably did not QUITE live up to the book, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than The Da Vinci Code, and on its own I thought that, though not without its flaws, it was a very well done film.
I was very impressed with the introduction of the film. They did a good job of presenting the two sides of the story, Religion and then Science, and then pulling you into the story. After that, the movie slowed down for just a little bit. It basically followed the same pattern as the book, it introduced the story and characters, and for a while had quite a bit of plot development to really build up what was going on. This was the main part that I thought could have been done a little better in the film. Not that it was done badly. The plot was presented well, and it was definitely interesting, but I felt like it just lacked a little bit of that cinematic feeling, it's hard to say what they could have added to it to make it better but I just felt like they could have made the plot events punch a little harder.
However, the film doesn't drag for very long. Just like the book does, after the story is developed, it starts to pick up momentum very quickly and keeps you interested. I felt that they did a great job of giving you that suspenseful, time-is-running-out, race-against-the-clock feeling, the action is intense but not over the top, and the film stays tense and suspenseful until almost the very end.
The ending didn't quite have as powerful of an impact on me as it did in the book, but that may just be because i had already read it and already knew the story. Though I had pictured them doing it a little differently, it was still presented well, and one particular shot near the end I thought was quite spectacular (not gonna give away any spoilers though).
overall, other aspects of the movie were also quite solid. Good performances all-around (though probably none that will win any Oscars), great score from Hanz Zimmer, a few good chuckles of comedic relief here and there, etc.
All in all, though it has room for improvement and is not perfect by any means, this is a very entertaining, exciting and suspenseful film, and a very solid adaptation of the book. a few plot points where changed but otherwise it stays very true to the book and was very fun to see unfold on screen.