It seems to be blockbuster season at the moment. We had the choice between watching X-Men: Wolverine and Angels & Demons and chose the latter mainly because of the bad reviews that Wolverine got (even though the trailer looks excellent!).

Angels & Demons is a sort of sequel to The Da Vinci Code, which came out in 2006 and which was actually quite bad. I am saying sort of because the only way to tell that it is a sequal is that it has the same main characters. But everything and everyone else is different. I read both books a few years ago and have to say up front that they are a lot better than either of the films.

The Story: Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is a Harvard Professor of Symbology who recently helped the French Police solve a case (in The Da Vinci Code) and is now contacted by the Catholic Church in Rome. The Pope has just died and the sect, the Illuminati, are now threatening to kill the four Preferati (the favourites to become the next Pope). One is to be killed at different secret locations throughout Rome, each full hour starting at 8pm the same evening. At midnight, a stolen canister holding anti-matter will lose all its battery and will therefore explode and blow up the whole Vatican City and parts of Rome.

The entire film is like a major scavenger hunt. Langdon and a female scientist who was working on the anti-matter project are trying to find a path that leads to the church of the Illuminati while the Swiss Guard are not really helping them, even though they called Langdon to come to help. The only person who really seems to be on Langdon’s side, trying to help, is the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor) who is in charge of the Pope’s office during the time of conclave.

The subject of the story is really interesting. I love conspiracies, especially when they are remotely based on the truth. I always wonder how much of it is true, and how much is pure fiction. The film shows a lot of the Vatican City and Rome and sculptures in Rome that face a certain way and I really want to know whether these sculptures are really facing that way or were just put there for the movie. Also the things said about the Illuminati. I know the sect itself is (was) real, but I would love to know if the path Langdon is following is actually real or whether Dan Brown invented it completely.

Angels & Demons is a much better film than The Da Vinci Code, although I preferred Audrey Tautou as “the girl”. There is no love story whatsoever in the second film (not that it is necessary) – the scientist is merely there to help Langdon solve the case. She could as well have been a man. As expected, Ewan McGregor steals the show. He is absolutely brilliant as the Camerlengo. Without him, the film would be half as good. He brings a certain sincerity to his role and the movie which Hanks is lacking. Even though I liked the film, my advice would be to wait for the DVD to come out to watch it. Or even better: read the books!