Angels & Demons

Plot synopsis:
CERN director Maximilian Kohler discovers one of the facility's physicists, Leonardo Vetra, murdered, his chest branded with an ambigram of the word "Illuminati." Kohler contacts Robert Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati, who determines that the ambigram is authentic. Kohler calls Vetra's adopted daughter Vittoria home and it is ascertained that the Illuminati- an ancient anti-religious organization thought extinct- have stolen a canister containing antimatter—a substance with destructive potential comparable to a nuclear weapon. When at CERN, the canister is stored in a unique electrical charger which ensures the antimatter's stability but when removed its back-up battery provides power for 24 hours after which the antimatter would fall out of suspension and, on coming into contact with the physical matter of the container, explode. The canister is located somewhere in Vatican City, with a security camera in front of it, as its digital clock counts down to the explosion due to occur at midnight, an explosion which will wipe out the Vatican.
Langdon and Vittoria make their way to Vatican City, where the Pope has recently died. They are told that the four Preferiti, the cardinals who are most likely to be elected pope, are missing. Langdon and Vittoria search for the preferiti in hopes that they will also find the antimatter canister. Their search is assisted by Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca (the late pope's closest aide) and the Vatican's Swiss Guard.
Langdon tells Vittoria how the Illuminati created a citywide map known as the Path of Illumination, a trail once used by the Illuminati as a means of inducting new members; aspirants who wanted to join the Illuminati were required to follow a series of subtle clues left in various churches in and around Rome. The clues indicate the secret meeting place of the Illuminati. Langdon is granted access to the Vatican Archives where he believes a document containing the clues to the Path of Illumination is located. The clues to the Illuminati markers are placed inside Galileo's famous book called 'Diagramma.' Langdon then sets off on the Path of Illumination in hopes of saving the preferiti and recovering the antimatter canister.
The Path leads Langdon and Vittoria to four churches in Rome, each one representing works of art by Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini which are associated with one of the primordial elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Langdon realizes the four preferiti will be murdered in a way thematically related to each location's related element. The first cardinal is branded with an Earth ambigram and has soil forced down his throat, suffocating him; the second is branded with an Air ambigram and has his lungs punctured; the third is branded with a Fire ambigram and is burned alive; and the fourth is branded with a Water ambigram and is wrapped in chains and left to drown at the bottom of a fountain.
During their search for the Illuminati lair, Langdon and Vittoria are seen getting closer.
After finding the bodies of the first two preferiti, Langdon hurries to the Santa Maria della Vittoria Basilica and finds the preferiti's abductor in the act of setting the third cardinal on fire. The kidnapper is an unnamed assassin who is working under the orders of the Illuminati master "Janus," whose true identity is unknown. Commander Olivetti is killed and the assassin kidnaps Vittoria. Langdon escapes and accosts the assassin at the final element's marker (Water) but he is unable to save the cardinal.
Langdon must complete the Path of Illumination in order to find the assassin and rescue Vittoria. His search leads him to Castel Sant'Angelo which he realizes is the Illuminati lair, under which a tunnel leads directly into the pope's private library in the Vatican. Langdon frees Vittoria and together they send the assassin falling several hundred feet to his death. The two hurry back to St. Peter's Basilica where they find that Kohler has arrived to confront the camerlengo in private. Langdon and Vittoria fear that Kohler is Janus and that he has come to murder the camerlengo. Hearing the camerlengo scream in agony from being branded with the Illuminati Diamond, the Swiss Guards burst into the room and open fire on Kohler. Just before he dies, Kohler gives Langdon a mini video camera containing a video Kohler made while confronting the camerlengo and tells him to give it to the media.
With time running out, the Swiss Guard evacuates the Basilica. The camerlengo rushes back in, claiming that he has received a vision from God who has revealed the location of the antimatter canister to him. With Langdon in pursuit, the camerlengo ventures into the catacombs and finds the canister sitting atop the tomb of Saint Peter. Langdon and the camerlengo retrieve the antimatter and get in a helicopter with only minutes to spare. The camerlengo manages to parachute safely onto the roof of St. Peter's just as the canister explodes harmlessly in the sky. The crowd in St. Peter's Square look in awe as the camerlengo stands triumphantly before them. Because of this "miracle," the cardinals debate whether to elect the camerlengo as the new Pope. Langdon manages to survive the explosion using a window cover from the helicopter as a parachute, a trick he learned while touring CERN with Maximillian Kohler and lands in the Tiber River.
As Langdon regains consciousness, he finds himself in a hospital located on an island. He is given the video camera which he placed in the pocket of his tweed jacket. He is shocked when he hears the footage and becomes desperate to head back to the Vatican. The video shows the camerlengo branding himself with the Illuminati diamond and confessing that he himself is Janus, and who set in motion the night's chain of events in order to sabotage the Vatican. He also confesses that he killed the Pope with an overdose of heparin, a powerful anticoagulant because the Pope revealed he had fathered a child.
After viewing Kohler's tape, Langdon, Vittoria and the cardinals confront the camerlengo. Shortly before the novel begins, the Pope met with Leonardo Vetra who believed that antimatter was capable of establishing a link between science and God. Vetra's beliefs caused great discomfort to the camerlengo. While discussing Vetra, the pope reveals that his support is due to science having given him a son. Without waiting to hear the explanation (that the child was the result of artificial insemination) and horrified that the Pope appeared to have broken his vow of chastity, the camerlengo plots to rectify the situation. He poisoned the pope and, under the guise of an Illuminati master (Janus), he recruited the assassin to kill Vetra, steal the antimatter and kidnap and murder the preferiti. The camerlengo planted the antimatter in St. Peter's basilica, feigned his last minute vision from God and retrieved the canister just in time to save the Vatican from the ensuing explosion. This was in hope to unite the struggling Catholic Church. The Illuminati involvement was merely a plot engineered by the camerlengo to cover his own involvement. Upon the discovery and the camerlengo's attempts to justify his murder of the Pope, Cardinal Saverio Mortati, Dean of the College of Cardinals, reveals that the camerlengo is in fact the late pope's biological son, conceived with a nun through artificial insemination. Overcome with guilt, Ventresca soaks himself in oil and sets himself on fire before a crowd of onlookers in St. Peter's Square. His ashes are recovered by Mortati, who places them in an urn which is placed inside his father's sarcophagus. It is revealed that the cardinals' endorsing of him would have made him Pope by acclamation. Mortati is unanimously elected pope by the cardinals and Langdon and Vittoria reunite at Hotel Bernini where they share an extensive meal before making love. The last brand, the Illuminati Diamond, is given to Langdon on indefinite loan, provided he return it to the Vatican in his will.

Tags: psychedelic, revenge, mystery, action, murder

Review:
Tom Hanks returns as Dan Brown's symbologist Robert Langdon in his first adventure Angels & Demons, which Hollywood decided to make after The Da Vinci Code, given the latter's more controversial subject striking a raw nerve on the faith itself.
In the book she's the fodder of course for Langdon to converse his vast knowledge of the Vatican, the Illuminati and the great feud between the two, but here she's neither love interest, nor his intellectual equal.Ewan McGregor on the other hand, chews up each scene he's in as Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, who is temporarily taking care of the Papal office while the other prominent cardinals are in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new Pope.
There's no surprises here for readers of the novel, but McGregor's performance here is one of the highlights of the film as Hanks plays well, Tom Hanks.The book itself is rich with arguably accurate content as always, and had a lot more plot points on science versus religion, and a wealth of information that Dan Brown researched and linked together in an engaging fictional piece of work.
Unlike the first film where you had the characters sit down for some "discussion time" over a cup of tea, this one moved things along so quickly, it's like reading the book all over again, page after page being skipped just to get to the thick of the action.Catholic reviewers have called Angels & Demons harmless, because I guess it didn't dwell on its many controversies, unlike The Da Vinci Code which struck a raw nerve at the centre of the faith.
Naturally certain areas like the catacombs beneath St Peter's Basilica, and the Vatican archives remain out of bounds, but the walk along the Path of Illumination, now that's almost free.Nothing new for those who have read the book other than to see it come alive, but for those who haven't, this film may just compel you to pick up Dan Brown's novel just to read a bit more about the significance about the landmarks, and characters such as Galileo, Michelangelo and Bernini who are intricately linked to the plot, but much left unsaid.
Where Da Vinci code introduced us to Dr. Robert Langdon and his knack for solving puzzles, Angels and Demons ups the ante by providing a huge puzzle with an 8 hour limit.With a cast of award winning actors, Ron Howard does a good job of directing a story that was easy to follow and even easier to accept.
There isn't a great amount of Tom Hanks time as the film focuses more on story than character development and this did well with me being that I had more than enough introduction from the first movie.Unfortunately I found Ayelet Zurer's character Vittoria Vetra to be an unnecessary femme assistant in the quest since her lines were a bit limited and seemed much like an afterthought.
The hope of the writer, no doubt was that by basing the sources on ancient lore and setting the action in modern day locations, this heft would give credence to the events on the screen, but it's all too unbelievable for words.Hanks' character, it seems, has the uncanny ability to decipher ultra-complicated arcane clues in minutes (he has one hour between the scheduled executions of pope-aspiring cardinals, which are the prelude to the big-bang anti-matter cataclysm, set for midnight) only to race around a darkened and crowded Rome to unerringly arrive just after the deed has already been done!
He does however divine enough to eventually save the last of the scheduled victims and of course be on hand to save Vatican City from destruction at which point we learn it wasn't about the mysterious Illuminati Group's 400-years-in-the-making grand revenge against The Vatican but about papal legate Ewan McGregor's fiendish plot to assume the papacy himself...I'm aware of the novel's massive popularity (which will propel the film to world-wide success, no doubt, like "The Da Vinci Code" before it) but really the plot holes here are bigger than the Grand Canyon.
There's loads of stuff like this in the film and though director Howard tries to ratchet up the tension with clock graphics ticking down the minutes to midnight and employing Hans Zimmer's pounding, sub-Orff music to propel us to the next big-scene, it just gets crazier and crazier, to the frankly deranged conclusion of MacGregor's errant priest saving the Vatican by piloting a helicopter (handy he was in the Italian air-force as a young man!) up to safety, where the anti-matter explosion occurs relatively harmlessly before parachuting back to earth to be proclaimed a hero.
Symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) is called to Rome to help decipher the mystery behind the Illuminati before a new science experiment blows up the city.The Da Vinci Code broke records in 2006 but for the vast majority of Dan Brown followers it did not do his award winning book justice and though running at a good 2 and a half hours, seemed to bore many.Having read the book, I was perhaps one of the few who enjoyed Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou attempt to solve the mystery of the murder in the Louvre but for Angels and Demons the scales were raised once more as lead star and director return.Having asked around, most people seem to prefer Angels and Demons to The Da Vinci code for an entertaining read and it seems as critiques and fans, whilst still not fully justified, prefer this latest adaptation to the 2006 release.This Howard picture certainly has a more clinical energy and exercise to it as unlike Da Vinci, Tom Hanks' Robert Langdon has only one night to solve the mysterious activities of the forgotten Illuminati in the Vatican and because of the time limitations, the action and desperation up the ante and deliver an excitement that certainly beats The Da Vinci code but also generates plenty of twists and stunning murder sequences.The interesting factor of this 2009 release is the constant elements being justified for the murders.
Earth, wind, water and fire are all included in drastic and powerful sequences to pronounce a feeling of overall power to the situation.This really does justify the tag of thriller with a constant tension and sharp drama with the issues and beliefs once more given a full working over.Just like 3 years ago, there are many debates and discoveries of symbols once believed to be lost forever and Langdon is again the key character to show everyone the light in and amongst the controversy of other pressing circumstances.It is fair to say Dan Brown is a complex writer; he certainly likes to cram issues and dramas in amongst his action and thrilling sequences.
The supporting cast including the very underrated Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgård all had deserving roles, and it was neat to see Ewan back on the screen (he's been gone far too long.) Bottom line, though it can't compare with the book, it's still terrific entertainment, and if you liked Da Vinci Code, Ron Howard has a big surprise for you..
The film version of The Da Vinci Code, while certainly not the best summer blockbuster of 2006 (Mission:Impossible III, X- Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns were much smarter and more memorable), was an enjoyable piece of work because director Ron Howard, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and star Tom Hanks got it right: the story is deliberately provocative (in a bad way) and slightly pretentious, but as a slick, well-executed thriller it works quite reasonably.
Setting aside possible chronology issues (the book is a prequel, whereas the movie is a sequel, reflecting the fact that most people discovered Angels & Demons after reading The Da Vinci Code first), the film sticks to the previous entry's blueprint: running from one location to another, clues hidden in works of art, Langdon explaining things, potentially controversial revelations (although the novel's main twist has been removed).
The cast is another problem: Hanks is never boring (and he's cut his hair since last time, meaning he looks less laughable), and the support he gets from Favino, Stellan Skarsgard (whose part was extended compared to the book) and Armin Mueller-Stahl (always a good choice, no matter the film) is pretty solid, but Zurer is so bland she even makes Audrey Tautou's much derided final scene in The Da Vinci Code look good: not only is her chemistry with Hanks close to zero, she also has the ungrateful job of sounding convincing when she delivers lines in Italian (the character, of course, was born in Italy; the actress, on the other hand, is from Israel, and it shows).
With all do respect to all those who read the book and tried to compare it with the movie,I never read the book but i just came from the premiere night here..and i have to say..I was WOWed !Why all the negative reviews and the disappointed moods ?This is a stay on the edge of a seat kinda flick,which guarantees great viewing and a heck of a good time.there is no dull moments on this one that's for sure.I have to say in my opinion that it exceeds TDC,with Ewan Mcgregor who totally stood out next to Tom Hanks,but don't get me wrong..all cast was well put and up to the task..I'm just pointing to an outstanding performance by Ewan Mcgregor.Tom hanks is Tom Hanks,it seems like he is Prof Langdon after all..no one can do it better than him.Ron Howard on the director seat however did an amazing job that exceeds his previous work in TDC .Anyways..go see it..and don't be fired down by the negative reviews..
It is not even a thought-provoking movie, at least it offers no new or interesting perspective: the ancient, and let's admit, quite old-fashioned (but probably not so out of fashion) dichotomy between science and religion, is just a pretext on which to build a strong and till the end entertaining story, still able to attract millions of viewers all over the world: all the remaining nonsense is forgivable.The whole cast prove good performances, Tom Hanks is a certainty from the beginning, being however in my opinion Ewan Macgregor (the Camerlengo) the most interesting character, and the one with whom Langdon has the only interesting exchange on faith, but all actors (even "our" Pierfrancesco Favino) contribute to the enthralling atmosphere of the story..
Owing to the source novel's more limited reputation, 'Angels and Demons' lacks the bloated self-importance, whether conscious or not, of its predecessor, and so can be enjoyed, without reservation, as a fanciful, unpretentious two-hour page-turner.Screenwriters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman have shorn the majority of Dan Brown's ludicrous plot twists – most fortunately a parachute- substitute that would have sent audience eyes rolling – but, even so, the film remains thematically inconsistent, a flaw that extends back to the source material.
A lead character sporting a better hairdo doesn't translate to a better conspiracy theory film as proved by "Angels & Demons", the follow-up to the ludicruous "The Da Vinci Code", where Tom Hanks reprises his role as the renowned symbologist in a race against time to follow clues and solve riddles to prevent a catastrophe from happening.
Based from the first novel by Dan Brown to feature Harvard Professor of Symbology Robert Langdon (an Indiana Jones clone with less charisma), Ron Howard's second go at pseudo-erudite actioner succeeds only insofar as being consistent with its cinematic predecessor's mediocrity, with the age-old science-versus-religion theme depthlessly glanced at in lieu of the turgid plot and uninspiring chase scenes around the churches of Rome and Vatican City.Actually a prequel of "The Da Vinci Code" novel, the events in "Angels & Demons" is set after the events of the 2006 blockbuster where Langdon, now in antagonism with the Catholic Church following his Parisian saga, finds himself in the middle of another predicament when the Vatican summons him to help them in locating the whereabouts of the Illuminati, a supposedly mythical group of freethinkers that has vanished centuries ago but has apparently re-emerged shortly after the Pope's death to murder the four would-be successors to the Papacy, and blow up Vatican City in the process using an antimatter bomb stolen from the elite science lab CERN in Switzerland.
Great line early on - "Oh thank God the "symbologist" has arrived!" -spoken sarcastically...unfortunately if you have read the book or if you do go to see the movie you will know that it is reiterated more warmly at the end of the film.....it might even be on the posters and trailers for all I know.....Let me ask you , once you've been to see the film.....did you think that you needed all the symbolism explained?As Dr Mark Kermode said in his review on BBC Radio, the problem with the "Da Vinci Code"...was that they stood around and pointed at something, explained it and then rushed to the next place.....Angels and Demons has improved.....now they do the explanations whilst they are running to the next set piece - "result"!On a separate note, if you want to play a little game in the movie....try to work out what area of the world Ewan Magregor is supposed to have come from ......Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins comes to mind....And if you don't laugh out loud about ten minutes from the end when Hans Zimmer's music tries to capture the solemnity of the moment amidst the funniest slapstick since Laurel and Hardy.....then you take yourself and this movie far too seriously....!The biggest problem for me is that I believe cinema audiences are not fools......
"Light" as a symbol for enlightenment and yet in contradiction Lucifer the "light giver".....or make more of the conflict between "science" and the "church" which is the cornerstone of the film's plot or illuminate the contradictions between angels and demons.But then maybe I am wrong, maybe we the audience are stupid and if we go to a movie based on a best seller...we can't expect anything else but that the accountants and the number crunchers will have told Ron Howard what they want the film to "do"....in all senses, artistically and financially.....For me opportunity lost to make a great intelligent movie that would have departed no more from the book than the film we have before us.Sorry...I know an immense amount of work goes into films and I rarely write critical reviews......but if you are a genuine movie fan you should go to see this movie and play another game rather than "guess the accent"...perhaps you can determine how you might have filmed it given the gazillions that Ron and the team were given to make it..
However I had read Dan Brown's other Langdon novel before Da Vinci Code, and I always found Angels and Demons the far superior story.
Its a superior movie to Da Vinci Code, and I just hope The Lost Symbol (the upcoming Dan Brown novel) is good enough to warrant Ron Howard and Tom Hanks to sign on for yet another one..
EWAN McGREGOR does a fine job as Camerlengo and his participation in the film's final twist is handled with style by director Ron Howard and his screenwriter.AYELET ZURER is much better at portraying Tom Hanks' assistant in solving the mystery than the woman in the previous film, her accent not as thick as the French actress which was a huge drawback in THE DA VINCI CODE.
So first things first..Angels and Demons is a much better and very different film than the Da- Vinci code.Following the recent slew of comic book movies, remakes and questionable resurrections of aged franchises.
it is refreshing to watch a very solid and entertaining film that is devoid of shaky cam filming techniques, lens flare, excessive GCI and over the top action sequences.In this respect Angels and Demons almost feels old fashioned.It offers a good and considered debate on the age old subject of religion Vs science, offers an insight in to the parallels between the grand houses of God in Rome (beautifully shot by the way) and the temple of modern science that is CERN's large hadron collider facility.Hanks is Hanks pretending to be the smart guy and he fits the role much better second time around than his wooden performance in Da-Vinci.
not only was Tom Hanks' mild mannered portrayal or Robert Langdon Laughable, but the name changes to key characters, huge deviances from the original story line, and poor Irish/Italian accent from Carmalengo Played by Ewan Mcgregor, made for the worst book to film EVER.As a huge fan of A&D the book, i had high hopes for a more lavish, true to book detailed movie, where it would start and finish just as the book did - leaving me wanting more.All the film really did was depress me within the 1st 10 minutes.what was impressive was how the...
Ron Howard's film based on Dan Brown's first Robert Langdon offering, "Angels & Demons", is a tighter better-wrought experience than the first movie "The Da Vinci Code", which is actually the second Langdon novel.
Following on from the critically panned but box office success of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons reunites Ron Howard and Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon in another religion come politics come art history romp against time.
Having read both Dan Brown novels, Angels and Demons is by far the more entertaining book and should on all counts be a better film, which to be fair it is However this is like saying being crucified upright is better than being crucified upside down – there really isn't much in it and either way it is going to be pretty miserable.One of the many criticisms thrown at The Da Vinci Code was the film's inability to balance the historical storytelling with the modern day action, which in the end slowed the narrative to a plodding lethargic bus ride of a movie.
Moreover, it's a hundred times better than Da Vinci Code.The theme is very deep and when the movie is over you feel like you want to know more about the church, the Illuminati and the Vatican.