Angels and Demons (12A.)
Directed by Ron Howard.
Starring Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard, Armin Mueller-Stahl. 138 mins.
Though it made $758.2 million worldwide and currently is No 27 in the all time box office list, star Hanks and director Howard have remarkably little to live up to with their sequel to The Da Vinci Code. Like Matrix Reloaded or the last Indiana Jones it’s an example of that strange modern phenomenon, the unloved blockbuster.
This is my first experience of Dan Brown (it’s odd to see a movie where, by reputation, the plot synopsis in the press notes is likely to be a superior piece of prose to the actual book) and you can certainly see why he’s so popular. Within the first ten minutes he’s killed off a Pope and whipped us off to the Large Hadron Collider for the theft of some anti-matter. The race against time plot around Rome is fevered nonsense but all the intrigue is backed up with loads of scientific and historical research and that’s an intoxicating mix.
I imagine the book play out like a season of 24. Each chapter builds towards a cliff-hanger, the plot is a series of near miss failures as the hero just fails to thwart the villains until he finally triumphs in a not wholly creditable plot resolution. By the end you’re forgotten how it all started but it’s been such a rush of empty thrills you are satisfied anyway.
I can see how that would make 600 odd pages pass breezily by, but as a two hour twenty minutes movie, it’s not happening. The Da Vinci Code was slammed as being slow and plodding so this time the film is breathlessly busy, always on the go. But there in such a rush you miss out on any excitement or interest there is in working out the codes. The film’s like a fund raising Comic Relief stunt – an expositional paper chase where actors jog around Rome quoting long tracts about Catholic history and solving clues telling them where to go and find the next bit of plot.
So given that you can’t win with a Dan Brown movie you have to commend all concerned with making the best of it. Hanks isn’t great as Harvard symbologist Langdon but I kept imagining Harrison Ford in the role and how hectoring and grating he would be. Director Howard complains that the Vatican did everything to hamper their shoot around Rome but this part virtual, part studio, part location vision of the Eternal City is faultlessly rendered and looks fantastic.
Directed by Ron Howard.
Starring Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard, Armin Mueller-Stahl. 138 mins.
Though it made $758.2 million worldwide and currently is No 27 in the all time box office list, star Hanks and director Howard have remarkably little to live up to with their sequel to The Da Vinci Code. Like Matrix Reloaded or the last Indiana Jones it’s an example of that strange modern phenomenon, the unloved blockbuster.
This is my first experience of Dan Brown (it’s odd to see a movie where, by reputation, the plot synopsis in the press notes is likely to be a superior piece of prose to the actual book) and you can certainly see why he’s so popular. Within the first ten minutes he’s killed off a Pope and whipped us off to the Large Hadron Collider for the theft of some anti-matter. The race against time plot around Rome is fevered nonsense but all the intrigue is backed up with loads of scientific and historical research and that’s an intoxicating mix.
I imagine the book play out like a season of 24. Each chapter builds towards a cliff-hanger, the plot is a series of near miss failures as the hero just fails to thwart the villains until he finally triumphs in a not wholly creditable plot resolution. By the end you’re forgotten how it all started but it’s been such a rush of empty thrills you are satisfied anyway.
I can see how that would make 600 odd pages pass breezily by, but as a two hour twenty minutes movie, it’s not happening. The Da Vinci Code was slammed as being slow and plodding so this time the film is breathlessly busy, always on the go. But there in such a rush you miss out on any excitement or interest there is in working out the codes. The film’s like a fund raising Comic Relief stunt – an expositional paper chase where actors jog around Rome quoting long tracts about Catholic history and solving clues telling them where to go and find the next bit of plot.
So given that you can’t win with a Dan Brown movie you have to commend all concerned with making the best of it. Hanks isn’t great as Harvard symbologist Langdon but I kept imagining Harrison Ford in the role and how hectoring and grating he would be. Director Howard complains that the Vatican did everything to hamper their shoot around Rome but this part virtual, part studio, part location vision of the Eternal City is faultlessly rendered and looks fantastic.
