A Right Mix-Up

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2009)

Well, who thought there could be a worse hash of a Dan Brown book made? the Da Vinci code now looks like an accurate representation of it's book compared to Angels and Demons.
Firstly I want to state that the middle chunk of the film with the chasing on the Path of Illumination, is a fair, if not great piece of work; small things like the Vatican Police entering the archives as opposed to Vittoria can be looked over, but the beginning and end- WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
It was annoying enough to see Vittoria find her father dead, but how come he wasn't called Leonardo? what was the reason for changing a name? I understand that films usually have to cut content in order to not make a film too long but a name is hardly of consequence. Also there should be no research team involved, and what happened to Maximillian Kohler? I'm surprised the story made sense without him.
after these atrocities things got better and it was a most exciting story.
But allowing Cardinal Baggia to survive was yet another plot change, as much as I want the man to survive he isn't meant to. Also how did he know where he was being held? for instance he wouldn't recognise castle ST Angelo and Il Passeto hadn't been used for years (apart from the camerlengo) and when he was driven away he would have been tied up and not able to see.
so In finality I must say that the film is great in parts and I would see it again, if only to give visual aid to characters better represented in books, but the ending and beginning were a real mix-up.