Angels and Demons
Directed by Ron Howard

By Tony Sheppard
Capitol Weekly

“Angels and Demons” is the second movie made from a Dan Brown book featuring the character of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks). The other is “The Da Vinci Code” and while the “Angels and Demons” novel appeared first, the films are being presented to audiences in the reverse order, with the implication in the film that the stories are sequentially switched. This works in the sense that the events of the two novels are independent of each other and the sequence is unimportant, so there’s no real point in selling the second film as a prequel just to preserve the original publication order. But it also presents some problems of another kind, both in the production and the marketing of the film.

“The Da Vinci Code” is canonically offensive to many Christians, especially the Catholic Church, and the Vatican was not supportive of the new film production, even obstructive, according to director Ron Howard. The other problem with the notoriety of the first film is that the stories are extremely different in both tone and content. “Angels and Demons” is a fairly straightforward murder mystery that happens to be set in the context of the Vatican during the time of the selection of a new Pope. If people are expecting another story that challenges basic church teachings then they will either be surprised (pleasantly or otherwise) or disappointed. If it’s offensive at all, it’s simply in treating the church and its traditions as a backdrop to murder and intrigue, which some may find crass, but it doesn’t contradict doctrine as “The Da Vinci Code” does. The film is actually quite respectful towards faith and people of faith.

Hanks reprises the role of Langdon, a Harvard professor and expert in religious symbols, who is called in by the Vatican (irony: common usage) to help solve a threat. He’s joined this time around by the always reliable Ewan MacGregor (as the Pope’s assistant, or ‘Camerlengo’), Stellan Skarsgard (as the Commander of the Swiss Guard), and Armin Mueller-Stahl (as a senior cardinal). The outcome is another film that is as slick in its presentation as one might expect from Howard, Hanks, and colleagues, and it’s entertaining in a shallow ‘whodunnit’ kind of way, but the story itself is really quite mundane and even somewhat flawed.

Without getting too deep into the film’s plot, there’s a threat against the lives of several cardinals, with a series of hourly deadlines that determine their safety. This ought to be the story’s strongest asset, as it should represent a plot that never lets up, progressing at a breakneck pace throughout. However the film preserves the book’s tendency to pause between events. This is a story in which you’d expect Hanks’ character to end the day wearing the same shirt he got blood on several hours earlier, not to give him time between deadlines to stop, clean up, and change into fresh clothes, with enough extra time for MacGregor’s Camerlengo to compliment his appearance. Isn’t there a cardinal somewhere that needs saving!?

In short, if you’re looking for a well-produced but routine murder mystery with a Vatican setting, then “Angels and Demons” is a satisfying holy rollercoaster, albeit also a fairly graphically violent one. If you’re expecting religion-redefining content and related controversy like that of “The Da Vinci Code” then it’s likely to make you question your faith in Hollywood’s ability to make people question their faith.