Book versus Film

Rating: 7/10 (24 July 2010)

By mia
The story starts when Dr. Vittoria and Fr. Silvano, and the Nuclear Research initiates the Large Hadron Collider and captures 3 antimatter in a special vial, without this vial if the anti-matter made contact or exposed with the matter this would likely explode like the "Big Bang theory" and one anti-matter can power up a whole city for many days.
Some Differences from the book: Book: Langdon received a phone call from the Vatican and went to the Geneva. Film: Langdon was currently swimming at the pool and one of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps told him about the Illuminati and asked his help in the investigation. Book: All of the cardinals were killed. Film: 1 cardinal lived. Book: Leonardo Vetra father of Vittoria Vetra was killed and the first who was branded with "Illuminati" Film: No scene about this. Book: Vittoria was kidnapped. Film: She wasn't kidnapped. Book: The assassin was killed by Vittoria Film: The assassin was killed in a bomb of the car when he got his last payment and ignited the engine of the car. Book: Camerlengo was the son of the late pope, conceived through artificial insemination. Film: Carmerlengo was adopted by the late pope. - Only the Swiss Guard was in the Book. The story is okay but it was a bit fast and some were cut-off that the people watching wouldn't understand the mysteries within the painting, the sculptor, etc. It had the same plot as the Da Vinci Code with a lot of mystery within the Church and Rome and problem solving, and talking too. They needed to go to the first sign / symbol / marker before they'll know what would be the next one. Langdon explained the mysteries about Illuminati, the meaning of the paintings, etc. As I know they where racing against time but the thing was the time of the scenes were always around 15 minutes before the deadline. But what happen with some of the scenes before that? Yup they've compressed the whole book in 2 hours and 30 minutes so they really weren't able to act all of it to a film. They've just got some good parts in the book which is still not enough to make the movie understandable. I understand the movie because I already read the book.
It had the same atmosphere and graphics as the Da Vinci Code except for the 1st and last part of the movie. Not all parts of movie was filmed in Rome but in Sony Pictures Studios in LA, California as the Roman Catholic seen the Da Vinci Code as offensive. I love the structure of library in the film which they film in Angelica Library in Rome, Italy (Wish I could tour in Rome). There was even some old car inside the archive library. And it still looks brand new. Is it still moving or just a model?
The acting was still the same, some doesn't have any expression in their face whenever they deliver their lines or maybe that was required to them. And some characters in the book were not in the film. Lead actor is Tom Hanks whatever you saw in his acting from his other films it's the same thing. He's a very calm guy.
I'm wondering if the book / film really pertain with some secret society that was against the Church. Many religions are against the Roman Catholic and other religion. But I've heard that there was a Black Pope in Rome but I'm not sure if it's really true.
Overall: I still like the book than watching it. I can really understand the mystery within them because it was clearly explain in the book. But still, I wanted to see and curious with the scenery, places, mysteries passage way, etc that what was described in the book.