Angels & Demons Review

Staring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Starstard

Harvard symbologist Robert Langston isn't well like at the Vatican after his last escapades (The Davinci Code). When the pope dies and a secret society, the Illuminati, kidnap four cardinals he is the only one that can help them. He uses the clues left by the Illuminati from a long time ago that leads him all around the Vatican and the four alters of science, earth, air, fire, and water. Can he solve each clue in time to save the cardinals? Can he save the Vatican city from catastrophe?

The Davinci Code was very controversial and therefore a very popular movie, though I could never get into that book. I loved the book Angels and Demons, I like reading books where you solve puzzles using symbols, signs, paintings, etc that are left from the past. I was swept away into a fast paced journey into the secret society of the Illuminati.

The movie was just as good as the book, Tom Hanks does a amazing job as Robert Langston. I was very surprised at how good Ewan McGregor did as the Camerlengo (official for the papal court) The movie took you on a fast paced journey all around the Vatican city, into churches, the Vatican archives, underground. It was fun learning about the Illuminati and how they could keep themselves a secret but still be right out in the open. A clue from a statue, or on a brick in the street, a arrow pointing the way, etc. I very much enjoyed this movie and for those who have never read the book, it has a bit of a twist in the end.

Ron Howard made somewhere around 700 million dollars off of The Davinci Code, so it allowed him to give this movie a big budget so they could make it better than the first movie.

Fun Facts:

This movie became the first big-screen casualty of the Hollywood writer's strike in 2007, because Akiva Goldsman's script still needed work, and he was on strike with the Writers Guild of America. So, production of the movie had to be postponed.

The production had to build a scale replica of St. Peter's Square since Vatican officers banned the movie from being filmed in its grounds.

Although the novel upon which this film is based is set before the events of the novel The Da Vinci Code, the film has been written as a sequel to follow after events in The Da Vinci Code (2006).