Angelic Possession - Ron Howard and co attempt to atone for "The Da Vinci Code", and mostly succeed

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2011)

Harvard professor and symbology super-sleuth Robert Langdon is back in this second adaptation of a Dan Brown novel. Besides the main character (played again by the inimitable Tom Hanks), the Oscar-winning team of director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer have returned for the sequel. In the wake of 2006's critically-derided The Da Vinci Code, how does its screen sequel fare?
There's a terrorist threat to the Papal Conclave in the Vatican, and the clues seem to suggest an ancient evil is rearing his head, so the Vatican turn to Dr Robert Langdon. He is roped in by Inspector Ernesto Olivetti (Pierfrancesco Favino) of the Gendarme Corps of Vatican City State (otherwise known as the Vatican Police) and decipher cryptic symbols left as clues by the Illuminati and assist the Swiss Guard and the afore-mentioned Vatican Police in rescuing the four cardinals and finding the antimatter before it consumes the Vatican. The beautiful CERN physicist Vittoria Vetra (Zurer) is also drawn into the fray, but even the combined expertise of both academics seems almost powerless to stop the looming Illuminati threat.
Now, if the above synopsis sounds far-fetched, be warned that it is just the tip of this cinematic iceberg. Author Dan Brown is known for meddling fact and fiction and even passing off the former as the latter, achieving at-times laughable results. Plenty of plot points are downright ludicrous and there are enough contrivances to fill St Peter's Square. The key prefix in this film is "pseudo" – the film is built on pseudo-science, pseudo-history, pretty much pseudo-everything. Stock characters and a fish market of red herrings also populate the picture. Therefore, suspension of disbelief is key. Thankfully though, the movie is paced well-enough, so much so that one eventually buys into the hodgepodge and goes along for the ride.
We are treated to a wonderful tour of The Vatican City that is part The Amazing Race (but with dead bodies and shootouts instead of roadblocks and detours), part dramatic angel's-eye-views of the world's smallest country. The fortress-church Castel Sant' Angelo, the famous Sistine Chapel, Santa Maria Del Popolo with its imposing obelisk and the former Roman temple of "all gods" the Pantheon all figure in this whirlwind romp. While some of Angels & Demons was shot on location, the filmmakers were not granted access to several sites within the Vatican Walls, as such set reconstructions and some digital magic was employed. The results are actually fairly impressive, one might even be fooled into thinking the computer-generated replicas are the real thing.
Ron Howard and company are eminent forces in Hollywood today and exert that power by casting relatively big names. While this film boasts slightly less star power than its predecessor (The Da Vinci Code had actors such as Jean Reno and Ian McKellen among its cast), everyone puts in fairly credible performances here. Tom Hanks lends much credibility to the Langdon role, and gets plenty more to do in this than in the last film, from dodging bullets to saving a drowning man and from taking a dip in speedos to feverishly thumbing through ancient documents. Some of the time though, Hanks clearly has his tongue in his cheek, and especially excels in the rare humorous moments that do ease the cinematic tension. As the female lead, Israeli actress Zurer does barely as good a job as Hanks, relegated to tagging along in the mad dashes from church to church. However, she isn't a bad actress per se and I look forward to seeing her in more Hollywood projects.
As for the supporting cast, it is good to see Ewan "Obi-Wan" McGregor turning in his Jedi robes from the Star Wars prequel trilogy for the Camerlengo's cossack and back in a blockbuster, and truth be told he does a mighty fine job. The incredible Stellan Skarsgard (whom we've seen in such films as Good Will Hunting, The Hunt For the Red October and the Pirates of the Caribbean films), though seems under-utilized as the prickly Commandante; despite this the actor still fleshes out the slight bitterness his character bears towards Langdon with much relish.
The film's small departures from the book seem to be a two-edged sword; on one hand the story has been streamlined and does work better for the screen, but on the other, interesting characters and other elements seem to have been sacrificed. Also, the book came before The Da Vinci Code, but the time-line has been altered such that this functions as a sequel, and the romantic subplot has been jettisoned in favour of a strictly professional relationship between Langdon and Vetra. It seems they learned their lesson from being too slavishly faithful to the book of "The Da Vinci Code".
The movie is enjoyable in spite of (or perhaps because of) its sheer absurdity, offering up legitimate thrills and even a couple of outstanding action sequences. Far from being offensive or overly-controversial, Angels & Demons ends up being more cotton candy fluff than a "lofty quest". But have angels guided Howard and Co. in their mission nonetheless? Perhaps, though this film does have its fair share of demons to contend with as well.
RATING: 3.5/5 STARS Jedd Jong