Angels & Demons (2009) movie review.

Starring:
Tom Hanks
Ewan McGregor
Ayelet Zurer
Stellan Skarsgård
Pierfrancesco Favino
Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Armin Mueller-Stahl

The review.

Angels & Demons is a gripping film with an interesting plot and an array of talented actors. What I enjoyed is the in depth visualisation of the papal conclave.

Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon, a symbolist from Harvard university. Since Forest gump, I hadn't Hanks as a serious actor until The  DaVinci Code in 2006. His acting wasn't transparent and he put himself well into the adventurous shoes of his Character. Obi Wan playes Camerlengo turned Illuminati member Patrick Mckenna. McGregor's acting was shining and illuminating. Zurer playes scientist Vittoria Vetra. I haven't seen her in anything other than this so I haven't anything to criticise her with but her character was a little boring and reliant on Langdon. Skarsgard I believe is an incredible actor, varying his acting techniques for his different roles; instance as Bill in Mamma Mia and as Martin Vanger in The girl with the dragon tattoo. Kaas' role as the assassin was a little dull, but all the more creepy with his mad scientist appearance.

The story starts quite interesting, depicting the process of the death and re-election of a pope. The film brings up the feud between the Illuminati; a group of ancient researchers who began to prove  Christianity wrong and the Catholic church who turned them violent by killing some of their members (I'm not sure whether the story is actually true because of the controversy and inaccuracies surrounding the Robert Langdon series) and branding them with crosses upon their chests. The Illuminati take revenge by capturing Catholic prefertiti and murdering them and branding their chests with ambigramms of the words earth, wind, fire and air. The film is rather predictable, but nevertheless spellbinding and capturing, practically forcing the viewer mentally to sit and watch.

I enjoyed the film immensely and hope that Dan Brown, the author of the Robert Langdon series, has his next book, The lost symbol, adapted for the silver screen.


I rate the film: