Angels & Demons

Angels and Demons the first book written by Dan Brown followed by The Davinci Code, actually reversed the steps when brought into the theatre. The Davinci Code realeased in 2006 , had an extremely strong following but people walked away with problems: The movie was too long, It was slow, and way to hard to understand. Too much talking and not enough happening. These were the things I heard, and apparently so did director Ron Howard.  

Angels and Demons solved most of these problems by creating new ones. The good news is, the “new problem” are far less severe.  

The movie starts a little slow, getting the audience aquainted with the characters, then builds up into an action packed form of events that last the remainder of the show. There is a lot less explanation then in The Davinci Code, but just enough to keep you understanding what is actually going on. Most scenes, Robert Langdon was talking as he was going to the next stop on the list. This kept the viewer occupied with the screen and not with trying to understand everything that was happening. 

One of the few issues with the movie was how they failed at working in certain things with the book. One of those things was Vittoria -Ayelet Zurer  They limited her role so much that you couldn’t get a strong connection with her as a viewer. Just watching the movie, we felt much closer to the “Villan” and the “Commander.” While in the book she was the clear second leading character. This showed that the Director felt it was such a priority to keep the movie moving forward, that having her by Langdons side almost seemed like an after thought.

Another issue coming from the original movie “The Davinci Code” people thought Tom Hanks wasn’t the man for the job. I remember my girlfriend once saying, “He just doesn’t look the part, it needs to be a Indiana Jones type of character and he can’t do that.”  I would like to say that, Tom Hanks did an amazing job playing Robert Langdon in this movie. The beginning scene really helped him out as well, when they showed him swimming in the pool being “sicklly” fit and ready for action.  Tom Hanks looked younger making himself more “Indy” like, and also spoke faster and cleaner. Whether it was the directing or the comfort level in understanding the character in the book. Tom Hanks truly nailed the man women have been wanting to see from this movie.

Lastly the movie was 138 minutes long, but only felt like an hour and a half.  This is actually the first movie I have ever seen with-out a cup of soda next to me. Most movies, I find myself using my ADD to a full advantage, eating reese peices and drinking a soda the size of Jupitor. But, I completely forgot about food altogether, which shows how addicting the movie was to actually watch.  

PS: To hear the full Review listen to the podcast. We will also be discussing “The Terminator” and our thoughts on movies coming out soon.