I heard the following radio spot for Angels & Demons a few hours before I saw the film: "Audiences and critics agree — Angels & Demons is better than The Da Vinci Code!"
Hmm, I thought. That statement doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Most audiences and critics hated Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel, so to proclaim that its follow-up is "better" is like saying that taking 99th place in a race of 100 people is significantly superior to coming in last.
I should have considered that commercial to be a warning. Instead, I went into the theater with an anticipatory excitement that had been building ever since Angels & Demons' first poster was released last October. I enjoyed this novel more than any of Brown's other works, so my hopes were high that Howard had learned from his DVC mistakes — namely, that he wouldn't stay too true to the book and end up with a flaccid, anticlimactic yawn of a movie.
The trailers gave me hope that the past wasn't going to repeat itself. Professor Langdon's mullet was gone! Ewan McGregor had joined the cast! There were action-packed chase scenes, explosions and gunfights! How could this not be fantastic?
Well, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but Angels & Demons is the opposite of fantastic.
About halfway through the film's one hundred thirty-eight minute running time I realized I was bored out of my mind. Things began promising enough, though: Professor Langdon (Tom Hanks), fresh off of cracking the mystery of the Holy Grail (A&D takes place after DVC — the opposite order of the novels), 
jets to Vatican City at the request of the local police, who have received cryptic messages about four abducted cardinals. There's also the tiny issue of an antimatter bomb stolen from CERN (home of the Large Hadron Collider) that will surely destroy the better part of Rome if its location isn't discovered before midnight. Oh, and since the Pope recently passed away, members of the College of Cardinals are about to lock themselves into the Sistine Chapel until they select a new leader. If the bomb detonates, the great majority of the world's Catholic leaders will be blown to smithereens. Symbologist to the rescue!
Langdon needs to immediately put his decades of research to use in order to catch the architects of this mayhem; all signs point to a science-loving secret society called the Illuminati. The Illuminati have left a trail of clues across Rome, and if the professor can decipher their meanings, he may be able to prevent the four cardinals' murders and retrieve the antimatter canister before it's too late.
Running around with Langdon are CERN scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) and Inspector Olivetti (Pierfrancesco Favin), and attempting to help from within the Vatican is Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor). However, Commander Richter, head of the Swiss Guard (Stellan Skarsgård), isn't buying into Langdon's ideas and is annoyed by his involvement in the case. 
What ensues is Langdon and crew racing from place to place — reaching their desired location (usually a church) or discovering a new clue just in the nick of time — all while Richter's grumbling and furrowing his brow and over at St. Peter's the Camerlengo's making lofty speeches to high-ranking Church officials about how science and religion can co-exist and everybody can be friends.
If screenwriters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman (who also wrote DVC) had done a better job at trimming out parts of Brown's novel that weren't critical to the storyline and had also refrained from multiple, preachy "can't we all just get along?" scenes, this adaptation would've been much stronger. Instead, the audience is forced to suffer through confusing, rushed explanations from Langdon about All Things Illuminati, as well as a series of Deep Thoughts from McKenna. These soliloquies destroyed the flow of the film, and as a result the action sequences (all those chases and shoot-outs from the trailers) seemed like hastily thrown-together afterthoughts.
Overall, Angels & Demons was too long, too convoluted and too boring. It also delivered about four false endings (I actually lost count, it may be more than four). The worst part by far, however, was the climactic finale. I won't spoil it for you by revealing what happens, but I will share that several people in my theater laughed at the spectacle, and it was in no way meant to be funny.
For those of you who, like me, were hoping for a worthy adaptation of a fun (if not fluffy) book, the good news is that there are a few high points in the film to prevent you from becoming utterly depressed. McGregor is great as the Carmelengo — his performance alone is what kept me in the theater. He's also what made me like Angels & Demons better than The Da Vinci Code overall. (The radio ad didn't lie.) Further, and this should come as no surprise, the setting is beautiful, and certain locations that had to be CGI'd still looked decent (you may not even notice that they're not the real deal).
But neither McGregor nor the breathtaking city of Rome are enough for me to be able to recommend Angels & Demons. After seven months of anticipation, I'm still in denial that not only is the movie out, but that I've already seen it and it was so, so disappointing. Perhaps if you approach the film with low or no expectations, you'll feel differently.
Posted on May 15, 2009 at 6:27 pm
I completely agree with your overall assessment of the film, especially in relation to the book, but I must disagree about the source for that failure. The film is not too long or too convoluted; it’s not long enough or convoluted enough. They altered so much of the novel’s plot and motif-base that the film is rushed. We get no explanation about the history/danger/reality of the Illuminati and we get absolutely no “Eureka!” moments with the puzzles because they are never thought out, they are merely presented quickly. Neutering the father-child theme and making certain characters in the book into two characters on the screen completely sap the film of any non-fluff meaning. Something they could have remedied with a few more minutes of explanation.
Posted on May 16, 2009 at 6:36 pm
ugh, I was really excited to see this! I loved the book and now I’m hearing all of these bad reviews. Maybe I’ll just wait for it to come out on dvd and then I’ll rent it..?
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I loved it, and thought it was great!! Very Good, worth seeing again at the movies…
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I watched this last night. I thought it was good. BUT>>>> I never read the books so what do I know…LOL… I think overall the movie was setup well and the story played out and came to a dramatic ending that I didnt expect.
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I went into the movie not knowing what the book was about, other than my friends telling me it was a really good read. I really liked The Da Vinci Code (the movie) so I couldn’t wait until Angels & Demons came out. However, my expectations weren’t as high because my wife told me the movie wasn’t getting great reviews. Well, I loved The Da Vinci Code and I loved Angels & Demons! Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor were great. Having nothing to compare it to, I thought it was great and really entertaining. I’d definitely see it again.
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 1:18 pm
For those of you who walk into a movie theater hoping to receive a history lesson, should remember that you’re going there to watch a movie. A FANTASY, not to disentangle historical mysteries. If that’s your case, stay home, and go back to school.
This is a typical movie like so many written by wannabee historians and erudites that pose as historical treatises, yet TOTALLY ignore the truth, and instead of sticking to historical facts, they enhance THEIR STORIES with sound and incredible science fiction and technological visual effects to keep you entertained, yet keeping historical ignoramuses (like the majority of modern-day moviegoers in the dark.
I have debated with such “historical experts” who actually use movies such as these as evidence to prove their beliefs and understanding of history.
Talk about the dark ages. We’re living there now, walking around with our eyes covered to boot.
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I have to agree with the last few comments – I really liked this movie!! I haven’t read the book either, so maybe that’s a good thing – I had no expectations. I enjoyed watching Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor and I didn’t feel bogged down by any of the explanations – I actually found them very helpful! BTW, I went to see this movie right after seeing Star Trek (for the 2nd time) and wasn’t bored in the least, so that’s got to account for something, huh?
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Well, I did not read the book (my husband did, and we went together), and we BOTH loved it! He explained some of the differences to me after the film, and said they didn’t hurt the story line. Very few people could read the book in 120 minutes, so if someone wants the details, READ the book! Don’t be put off by “naysayers” it’s a good movie!
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Critics are always giving bad reviews to good movies and wonderful reviews to the most Boring and not worth watching movies so honestly I really don’t listen to them anymore. Overall I think this was a very good movie and worth watching. Tom Hanks as always wonderful and Ron Howard did an expectacular job!. I really recommend it to the viewers
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Read the book, loved the movie. Yes, it couldn’t get it all in, but what they did was wonderful. You didn’t have to read the book to understand the movie. Great Job. Thanks for a movie that was fascinating from beginning to end. Definitely got my monies worth.
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Loved the book, loved the movie. Ron Howard did an exceptional job of picking and choosing just the right number of “soliloquies” to keep the viewer informed about the illuminati’s methods for hiding their location, as well as the underlying motive/point behind the entire movie. The fact that the church both supports science yet wrestles with it, was handled beautifully.
The movie could have been much longer, but then some would just complain about that.
Well done!
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 4:40 pm
What movie were YOU watching? or sleeping thru? or obligated to comment on?
Opinions and …
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Ron Howard should be ashamed of himself. I haven’t read the book, but it must be good because Hanks and Zurer felt the need to read it to each other throughout the movie. If the only way to get the all the context in the movie is to speak it, then don’t make the movie.
Movies are supposed to be visual. Instead of visually telling the story, we got a bunch of dialogue and an over abundance of unrelated shots of the vatican, along with the fake tension of shaky handheld.
Very lame effort, Ron.
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Boy o’ Boy what a bunch of hype. It is amazing how Hollywood can infuse that much money on advertising to float a movie into the theater and pull the audience with it.
I really should have saved the $9.50 per ticket and the 13.50 for 1 coke and 1 popcorn and bought a month’s worth of Redbox movies…
This movie was too easy to guess along the way. Felt like a dog chasing his tail…
Graphics were too dark, and 3 places that the cutting of the movie left the lead tape on with blips in the film.
Save your hard earned money and wait for this one to come out on DVD!
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Talk about your review being spot on. I also like how they did what they always do…at the end of the movie she’s all “I thought the worst that could possibly happen with my research was blah blah blah…” Really? You thought THAT was the worst that could happen? And you thought this because you’ve never watched a tv show, seen a movie or read a book in your life, because that’s the ONLY way you could possibly be that clinically [stupid]? As anybody who’s even just seen Jurassic Park could attest : “You were so busy trying to see if you could do something, you never took the time to stop and think if you SHOULD do something.”
And again, what does every cop training/CIA training/FBI training montage in films and tv show over the years? During the first week of training, what you learn when you go into a room is to secure it before you do ANYTHING else, because you can’t help anybody or do anything if you’re dead. So what happens when they go in and find the priest over the flames? They immediately go to assist him…and all die because nobody checked the room first. Apparently training in Rome isn’t quite what it is here in our country.
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 9:00 pm
It was indeed a great movie – excellent direction and site locations. Although, the book had a different plot and more enthralling, the characters and the tempo of the movie is fantastic. I would buy the Blu-Ray once it is out.
Posted on May 19, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I read the book then went to see the movie. I don’t know why Ron Howard and company felt the need to so drastically change the basic story. In my opinion, they ruined the story. The book is far superior to the movie. Read the book and forget about the movie.
Posted on May 20, 2009 at 7:48 am
My daughter went to see the movie, after having watched the Da Vinci Code, and she said it wasn’t nearly as good as the first one..I think I will wait til it comes out on DVD…Did anyone else notice how the DVD of the Da Vinci Code didn’t translalate well to DVD?…I went to see it at the theater & the special effects & lettering were excellent..on the DVD, the special effects didn’t show up well….funny, because the same effects on A Beautiful Mind did work on DVD…Wait..maybe I should go & see this movie at the theater?..lol..
Posted on May 20, 2009 at 8:19 am
Read the book – saw the movie – LOVED BOTH! Of course it is going to be different from the book – IT”S A MOVIE! My 16 yr old daughter saw it with me and she even liked it and never read the book. Go see, don’t listen to the “bookies”
Posted on May 20, 2009 at 12:12 pm
My boyfriend read the book, and was surprised the movie didn’t follow the book closer. However, we both really enjoyed the movie!! I enjoyed it 100% more than Da Vinci. We’re telling al1 our friends they have to see it!!
Posted on May 20, 2009 at 12:33 pm
“Most audiences and critics hated Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel,”
Reading this snarky comment in the 2nd paragraph telegraphs the author’s extreme bias, and says “no objective review will be following”.
Fact is, DaV. made over $700 mil. worldwide, so “most” audiences must have loved it. This new sequel of the pre-prequel is on track to make over $500 mil. and be more popular than Star Trek. So there.
I have yet to see a 2 hr. movie that do everything a 1,000 page book can. It’s always said a film can only do 100 pages of a book per hour. So this is the 200+ page version of A&D. A sort of ‘Graphic Novel’ of it, if you will.
So take it as it is meant to be: a interesting ‘adult summer action movie’ that has great visual style, good acting, a good plot, a lot less blood and gore than CSI, and some intellectual underpinnings, like LOST.
Enjoy!
Posted on May 20, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I agree with the OP’s post, I can accept that there are going to be parts that are left out due to time constraints, but to stray so far from the story? Additional characters added in? Changing the ending? Seriously?
I watched this with my son who said he liked it, but he didn’t read the book. I was looking at the illustrated book at Barnes and Noble and was looking for specific characters and who played them, couldn’t find them, should have been a clue that it wasn’t going to be the same.
If you haven’t read the book, you’ll enjoy this, if you have, you’ll more than likely be dissappointed.
Posted on May 21, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I really dont think i have agreed with any of the Reviews before. i think they dont even know what they are talking about. overall it was a good movie to enjoy. it was a long movie but it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was a very good movie. great way to start off the summer.
Posted on July 1, 2009 at 12:46 am
I went to see it at the theater & the special effects & lettering were excellent..on the DVD, the special effects didn’t show up well….funny, because the same effects on A Beautiful Mind did work on DVD…Wait..maybe I should go & see this movie at the theater?