Doctor Langdon Is Back

Rating: 4/10 (23 May 2009)

It's now been three years since Tom Hanks as Dr. Robert Langdon solved the mystery of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and that Audrey Tautou from The DaVinci Code is their descendant. You wouldn't think that for one minute the Catholic Church would call on this guy in a crisis. But that's what The DaVinci Code sequel Angels & Demons would have us believe. After all this guy basically ripped apart the linchpin of the Christian faith.
But now four cardinals have been captured on the eve on the conclave to elect a new pope and with some jurisdictional disputes raging, some in the Vatican have called in Tom Hanks. The culprit is that notorious secret society the Illuminati and not only have they captured four of the cardinals and are threatening to kill them, but are threatening to blow up the Vatican itself with an anti-matter device. The anti-matter was stolen from the supercollider in Geneva which brings scientist Ayelet Zurer into the picture as well.
So with Hanks trying to decipher codes from the Vatican archives in much the same way Nicholas Cage was working in National Treasure and Zurer around to see the bomb doesn't go off, it's a race against time to save the Vatican and its cardinals.
Director Ron Howard and Tom Hanks did a great job with The DaVinci Code, but in the sequel they came up way short. Church politics can get good and nasty sometimes, but this one was way too much for my taste.
Better this sequel just not have been made.