Directed by Ron Howard. 138 minutes.
Starring Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Released by Columbia Pictures.
Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons chugs along steadily as a no-nonsense, fast-paced thriller for adults for about an hour and 45 minutes before derailing with an ending that would like please fans of most summer films with its extravagance but, for this particular picture, ends up feeling slightly ludicrous. The film, based on the bestseller by Dan Brown, once again follows the adventures of Massachusetts professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), who appears to understand all facets of religion and the rituals it entails, but not the actual act of faith. It’s a theme that is played up throughout the film, but never really comes to fruition, which could be a good thing because the film’s last half-hour does not need any more distraction than what is already on display.
Much like The Da Vinci Code, Howard’s new entry in the series is a potboiler. But while that first film lays the groundwork of Langdon’s character and involved a fair amount of setup, Angels is action, action, action. There’s barely a minute in which to catch your breath as the film relentlessly moves from one sequence to the next. It’s fun, but not as thoughtful as Da Vinci. At the beginning of the picture, Langdon is approached by the Vatican shortly after the current pope, a progressive one it is noted, has died. The professor is told that the four top candidates to take the pope’s place have been kidnapped and their lives have been threatened by a group claiming to be the Illuminati, an ancient sect of free-thinkers and scientists who had apparently been discriminated against and punished by the church. The group, so it seems, is seeking its revenge. The Illuminati has also threatened to blow Vatican City sky high within a day’s time with a device using a device with God-like implications. This would explain the sequence, which first appears out of place from another film, during the beginning of the movie in which the partner of a scientist, Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer), in some sort of testing lab is murdered.
Langdon teams up with Vittoria and the sketchy head of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard (Stellan Skarsgard) to find the bomb before it goes off and potentially save the four kidnapped cardinals. Also thrown into the mix is Ewan McGregor as a young man of faith who was favored by the pope and who appears to be running the show in Vatican City. Also on board is Armin Mueller-Stahl as a seemingly self-serving cardinal who may have cruel intentions. The film jumps from one sequence to the next: Langdon and team arrive on the scene, a cardinal is either killed or not killed, a clue is miraculously found on a statue or on the dusty floor of an ancient church, an explosion, perhaps, occurs and then, bam, they’re off to the next site. This is all fun for a majority of the film, which is closer in nature to the National Treasure movies than it is to its predecessor.
It’s in the final 30 minutes that the film flies off the rails – and fly off it does. Without giving too much away, I can tell you that the bomb is defused in the most preposterous of manners, and I’ve become more than willing to suspend my disbelief during the summer movie season, mind you. Also, the bomb’s defuser then takes steps to remove himself from the equation in a sequence that is even more absurd than the actual defusing. Then, another character’s star rises in a scene that would likely be logical following the sequences preceding it, that is, had those scenes been even within the realm of possibility. So, it’s wrapped up then, right? Wrong. What follows is an even further plot twist that is even sillier than the several scenes before it, culminating in the rather unpleasant death of a character. Also, a hired killer refuses to bump off Langdon’s character for no other apparent reason than that the film would have to stop right there. Ron Howard is a solid director – we know this already – as well as a good director of big budget films and even fast-paced action. Angels and Demons is a pretty decent film for the summer’s roster for most of its running time. It just steps wrong during its finale. As for tent pole studio fare, the film is better than most. It’s just a shame that its producers felt compelled to cater to the standard film of this moviegoing season by amping it up when it could have used a little toning down.