Movie Review - “Angels & Demons”
1/2 STAR
“Angels & Demons” re-teams director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks for the sequel to their international blockbuster adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code”. Hanks stars as professor Robert Langdon, a respected symbologist, who uses his knowledge to decode ancient hidden religious symbols that reveal a sinister plot within the Vatican. The clues eventually put him on the trail of a far fetched international conspiracy involving the Catholic Church that had my eyes rolling non-stop!
In “Angels & Demons”, the filmmakers spend a lot of screen time trying to explain the plot to the point you feel overwhelmed with the details. I would hesitate to call this movie suspenseful or even involving, I found myself laughing in disbelief quite a lot. The absurd climax pushes the film past the limits of an audiences ability to suspend disbelief, which is ultimately the films biggest weakness. I guess the one thing Howard has learned in his hacky career is that a film doesn’t need to have a lot of substance to make a ton of money.
Even though this movie is a glossy, high profile popcorn flick with an A-list cast, it doesn’t mean it’s any good. This clumsy msytery is loud, 20 minutes too long and super violent for no apparent reason (I don’t underdstand why this movie wasn’t rated R). “Angels & Demons” is the first official dud of the summer movie season, it should pray for forgiveness and quietly go away to make room for bigger and smarter looking pictures like “Up”, “Julie & Julia” and “Bruno”.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
This. Movie. Sucked.