Could have been better

Rating: 7/10 (16 May 2009)

As it always happens with screen versions of popular novels, the audience will measure the movie not only by cast, special effects and such like properties but they will also judge the carefulness of dealing with initial Dan Brown’s text. But for me it did not matter because although I honestly read the book I cannot recall the way Brown described the characters of the novel. I do remember the events, but in my opinion the writer is not really good at dealing with the characters’ motives, their feelings and the stories of their lives. As a result exciting plot of the novel is combined with poor descriptions, and the characters seem to be quite impersonal. The stories of their lives are often too melodramatic as it was with the Camerlengo. His orphan childhood does not actually have much to do with what is going on in Rome, so I think the movie does not benefit from such flash backs.
I found “Angels & Demons” much more absorbing than the previous film about Professor Langdon. What I liked about Howard’s second attempt was that there were not many episodes in which Langdon gives lectures about historic sights. All he said in “Code” reminded me of Wikipedia’s articles. It was boring and he obviously enjoyed himself too much which was also a total disappointment.
I believe “Angels & Demons” could have been much more interesting if there had been an end different from the one in the book. It is clear that the task of the director seems to be to display Tom Hanks to the best advantage, to let him reveal all the conspiracies and become a sole night in shining armors. No more heroes needed if there is perfect Langdon. But I think that if in the final the cardinals had chosen Camerlengo Patrick McKenna as a Roman Pope, the film would have been much more daring. Of course such final would have been a shock to those who enjoyed the book, but still it would have been more fun in such case. You see, the cardinals lied in the press release about the Camerlengo Patrick McKenna’s death. But lie is already a deadly sin. And the cardinals turn out to be ready to exonerate this deadly sin under the condition that they tell lies in order to save their Church. But the Camerlengo lied and killed people because he also believed that in such a terrible way he does his best for the Church. So the cardinals can do wrong, and the Camerlengo cannot. That is unfair. He would have made a brilliant Pope.
The movie gets 7/10 from me mostly because I was impressed by Ewen McGregor in cassock.