BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: In Ron Howard’s thrilling new prequel to The DaVinci Code, expert symbologist Robert Langdon (Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, 1994, “Forrest Gump”) is called to Rome when four Cardinals are kidnapped by the church’s deadliest enemy, the secret society known as The Illuminati. Teamed up with the beautiful scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), Langdon follows ancient clues on an action-packed hunt through catacombs, cathedrals, sealed crypts and the most secretive vault on Earth to stop the Illuminati from killing the cardinals and detonating a bomb that will both Vatican City to heaven.

FILM REVIEW: The DaVinci Code was perhaps one the biggest disappointments in a Hollywood blockbuster that has come out in recent years after all the hype and excitement generated by the Dan Brown novel of the same name. Coming in to “Angels & Demons”, one would be forgiven for being sceptical about the quality. Although director Ron Howard and company have actually created a cinematic experience this time, perhaps because the book upon which it is based had a more filmic quality to it, “Angels & Demons” does still come up short in some areas, largely in the climax which degenerates in to complete silliness and implausibility. On the plus side, the first half is quite thrilling as Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon character is racing against time to prevent four cardinals, and the Vatican itself, from death and destruction.

The Vatican faces a crisis when the top four cardinals to replace the recently deceased Pope are kidnapped by members of the Illuminati, a secret society dedicated to scientific truth, and a mortal enemy of the Church. The Church is told that each cardinal will be killed one per hour starting at 8pm, culminating with an anti-matter bomb exploding under St Peter’s Cathedral at midnight, wiping out the Vatican forever. To face down this nasty threat, the Church calls upon the services of symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) who has expertise and knowledge of the Illuminati. He is put to work straight away, racing against time to find the kidnapped cardinals by deciphering clues, symbols and other historical tidbits. As he digs deeper however, all is not as it seems, with the threat coming back in to the Vatican itself, leading to a few surprises and grisly endings for those involved.

The filmmakers have very clearly made an attempt to address the problems inherent in The DaVinci Code. This time, rather than having characters talk through endless exposition and explanations of things without any cohesive narrative, everything is done with a sense of critical urgency. Langdon explains his history on the move this time, with the clock always ticking. The film does not drift in to exposition for too long as the plot pertaining to the missing cardinals keeps jumping back in to remind everyone that we have a crisis. There is even a sequence or two of genuine cinematic thrills, with the prime example being when Langdon and a Swiss Guard officer find themselves locked in the Vatican Vault with the oxygen running out. The film does well to engage interest through its explanations of history and the inner workings of the Vatican (whether accurate or not).

With a strong plot line, the characters have something to be emotionally invested in, and all do very well, starting with Tom Hanks who does not seem to be bored this time, Ewan McGregor as a seemingly well intentioned but dangerously misguided priest, and Ayelet Zurer as Vittoria who apart from lending her beauty to the screen also holds her own against Hanks. Stellan Skarsgard is also quite good as the head of the Swiss guard Commander Richter. Nikolaj Lie Kaas is quite chilling and professional as the assassin, particularly with his quite efficient and gruesome killing techniques. And serving as a supporting anchor of sorts is the always good Armin Mueller-Stahl who plays an old-school, but empathetic cardinal in charge of the Conclave, the time when the new Pope is to be selected.

The film does fall off the rails around three quarters of the way through its running time. When Langdon and company find the bomb, Carmelengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor) makes a seemingly sacrificial attempt to destroy the bomb by flying up high in to the sky in a helicopter, but then magically falls back to Earth in a parachute just in time to see the anti-matter bomb explode in a blaze of glory in the upper atmosphere. Aside from the fact that we have to accept as a given that this priest can fly a helicopter, he also manages to survive the extremely bumpy parachute jump, even after he had been branded painfully on the chest with an Illuminati symbol just moments earlier. The bomb itself we are told is enough to destroy the whole Vatican and a good portion of Rome but it only manages to knock everyone over and not destroy much. Then it lurches forward in to further absurdity when we are told the the Carmelengo actually staged the whole Illuminati threat when there was none to begin with in an attempt to make the Church more sympathetic by making the Illumaniti and what they stand for appear evil. This includes poisoning the Pope to make it look like the Illuminati did it, hiring the highly intelligent assassin without him knowing that the whole thing was faked, and keeping it all out from under the nose of the Swiss Guard, and in particular, Commander Richter who has cameras installed everywhere to track everyone’s movements but somehow does not find out about the Carmelengo’s treachery until the very last moment. This climax unfortunately makes the whole exercise a waste of time. The Illuminati are interesting; to be told in the end they did not exist is almost a cheat and diminishes the sense of history attached to the story.

The film does look good and is perhaps Ron Howard’s best looking film to date. The images of Rome are glorious, as is a visual motif of blending lens flares which stand in for the crowds of onlookers in St Peters Square which show up throughout the film. He manages to integrate a number of computer generated images in to the film seamlessly, although there are others that look woeful, particularly in the climax when the bomb goes off; the CG helicopter looks ridiculous in this scene, as do a number of other CG elements.

“Angels & Demons” is quite entertaining for most of its run time, only let down by a ridiculous and demeaning climax.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The transfer of this film to DVD is by and large flawless. The picture is quite stunning, particularly in the richness of colour, sharpness and contrast, with all the images and certain visual effects perfectly represented in their true presentation. The soundtrack is likewise impressive, creating an environment that befits the thrilling nature of the piece, with the musical score thundering out of the surrounds in the big moments. Overall, this film has been given an excellent transfer to DVD.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The extras package on this DVD is not extensive, comprising of four main featurettes which offer some insight in to the production. The two most interesting featurettes, lasting ten minutes a piece, are “Writing Angels & Demons” and “Angels & Demons: The Full Story”, which give an overview of the journey taken by the filmmakers to bring the Dan Brown novel to the screen. There is some interesting stuff here, but also some back-slapping as well on behalf of the filmmakers, particularly when Ron Howard says that he felt compelled to do this film after the fact that so many people liked The DaVinci Code… right… (at least he made a better film this time). The other two featurettes specifically deal with the ambigrams depicted in the film and the props. There are also some trailers for other Columbia films. Overall, these featurettes complement the film quite well but are not anywhere near extensive enough, especially considering that they only hint at the mammoth amount of logistical work that went in to getting the film made which actually looked quite interesting.

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it.