Angels and Demons – The Movie

Robert Langdon is back searching for more clues in Angels and Demons. The moment I heard the movie is releasing this month end, I took off to the nearest crossword store to pick a copy of the novel. After having seen The DaVinci Code, I presumed that I would not be able to grasp much out of this movie too unless I read the book beforehand. I was not completely wrong.

The first half of the movie would suggest that it is just another murder mystery, Robert Langdon trying to save the cardinals who have been kidnapped, and concentrating less on the Antimatter that has been planted in a secret location. And even lesser stress on how Langdon cracks each clue to find the path of illumination, in which the cardinals would be murdered. The cracking of the clues, I thought, was the most important and interesting part of the novel. But having said that, you just cannot have everything in the novel covered in detail, in a two and a half hour movie. I should say, the screenplay has been adapted pretty decently.

The highlight of the movie of course is Tom Hanks, who plays Robert Langdon, who carries out the role like eating a piece of cake. He surely has had more challenging roles in the past. Ewan McGregor plays the Camerlengo and does it brilliantly too. Ayelet Zurer playing Vittoria is unimpressive. The kind of chemistry between Langdon and Vittoria which was found in the book was completely missing in the movie. Ayelet Zurer for some reason kept smiling throughout the movie. The other roles were carried out the way they should be.

The movie picks up pace towards the second half. Again, I am not sure though, how much you could have grasped of the proceedings in the enclave, unless you had read the book before. They even axed off a couple of important characters present in the novel. The whole movie was like watching a one hour highlights show of an entire test match. But an exciting one at that. The cinematography was brilliant. And so was the background score of the movie.

All in all, the movie is worth a watch to see how your visualization of the characters and events has been picturised. Again, at least a couple of shots showing the beauty of the Vatican would have been a good idea. But this is definitely a better adaptation than the The DaVinci Code. It will be a while now before Robert Langdon comes on screen, if at all he does. But then I wouldn’t assume that anyone would be waiting anxiously for one too. I am not sure if I am inspired to see the movie again, but I am quite certain that I am inspired to read the book once again!

Star of the movie: Dan Brown

Point Table: 3/5

Reco: Read the novel and then watch