Title: Angels & Demons
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Director: Ron Howard
Writer(s): David Koepp (screenplay), Akiva Goldsman (screenplay)
Staring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård,
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material.
Running Time: 138 min (2 hrs and 18 min)
Synopsis: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon works to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican.
Other Reviews
Critics:
Roger Ebert: 3 Stars
Michael Phillips: 1 ½ Stars
EW: Lisa Schwarzbaum: B-
Other Sites:
At The Movies: Ben Mankiewicz: Skip It, Ben Lyons: Skip It
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 38% (Rotten), Top Critics: 34% (Rotten), RT Community: 66% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 48 out of 100, Users: 6.1 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 54: (1.1% A, 31.3% B, 52.3% C, 13.9% D, and 1.1% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: C+ Users: B
My Review
Source Material: Based on the book Angels & Demons by Dan Brown.
Acting and Dialogue: B: Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor are in my top favorite actors list but something was missing. It was well acted but at the same time it didn’t feel right.
Art Direction: C: I like the backdrop of Rome/ The Vatican but that’s it.
Cinematography: B+: The Vatican is a great backdrop so use it but wait you can’t so do your best, and that’s what they did with this film…so a mild kudos.
Direction: C+: Ron Howard is a good director but this film just doesn’t live up to his name. The film seems slow because it continuously stops and explains the clues and why they lead to the next clue, then add repetitiveness and ladies and gentleman you got yourself a “Dan Brown” movie.
Sound and Music: B+: Hanns Zimmer is great.
VFX: D+: Nothing cool or spectacular.
Overall: B-: I am going to give this film brownie points because of the reprecautions of the writers strike. This movie had great penitential, thankfully it was way better that it’s predecessor, The Da Vincci Code. It is a very flawed film which brings the quality way down. I am not going to recommend it to watch in theaters but give it change on DVD. I did look past these major cinematic flaws because I enjoy religious controversial films like that of Passion of the Christ, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter, and The Da Vincci Code.
