Summer '09 - Blockbuster #3 - "Angels & Demons"

First off, I was a big fan of the film "The DaVinci Code".  Yes, "DaVinci" isn't really the guy's name.  Yes, it presupposes a relatively wild conspiracy theory about Christ.  Yes, Tom Hank's hair was kind of crazy.  But I really liked the movie and I really liked Hanks's performance.  Of course, I really hated the book on which it was based.  Yee-ikes, was it bad.

Now, the previous book in the Robert Langdon series, "Angels & Demons" was of a similar stripe: Langdon uses his encyclopedic knowledge of history and symbology to thwart a mysterious bad guy intent on bad-guy things.  But that novel felt more real, somewhat more believable, and had a truly awesome ending.  So, I had very high hopes for this film.  If this movie could be as much of an improvement over the last film as the the book version of A&D was over DVC, it would be amazing.

Sadly, it's not that amazing.  It's a fun romp through Rome, with some nifty characters and nifty performances.  Ewan McGregor does a nice turn as a Vatican City official.  Stellan Skarsgård is his usual prickly self as the head of Vatican security.  (And he dies.  Skarsgård always dies.)  The story is interesting: a canister of antimatter is stolen from CERN and has been set to blow up the Vatican precisely when the cardinals are selecting a new pope.  They even tied in the previous film nicely; the Vatican officials realize they need Langdon's help to avert disaster, but they're wary of him for revealing their big secret about Christ.

Sadly, the film never really takes off.  It's one dependably directed (by Ron Howard) scene after another.  It's Hanks doing his grim thinker routine.  But it's never really that exciting.  I'll admit, the ending was everything I'd hoped for, but the rest of the film was merely good, not the great I'd hoped for.