Angels and Demons - 2009

Tom Hanks returns to our screens as Robert Langdon, the symbologist tasked with prevents another catastrophe for the Catholic Church. Where The Da Vinci Code was preposterous, silly and downright bad, Angels & Demons is much of the same. The big difference being a sense of momentum and deadline to try and save the day which gives the story and audience very little time to come up for air, let alone think through the twists and turns of the plot. And thank god for that, because when the credits role you left feeling mildly exhilirated by the proceedings. This feeling soon fades aay and you are left with the impression that you have just had a trick played on you, and one which wasn't actually all that good, because the more you think about Angels & Demons the less your inclined to like it. Just The Da Vinci Code it involves a ridiculously abstract and complicated plot - this time to cease power of the Church by killing the candidates for the next Pope. The problem isn't the ends, but the means with which such a plot is attempted. So elaborate and over the top is the scheme that the gaping flaws are plastered over only by the pace and rush to visit the next landmark and watch another pope candidate suffer a horrible and violent death.

Thankfully the film is littered with great actors, from Hanks, he finds this all too easy now, Ewan McGregor, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Stellan Skarsgaard make the film enjoyable, and Ayelet Zurer is easily as good as Audrey Tautou in the female assistant to Langdon.

Overall then, if you can put logic, your higher brain function and embrace a sense of preposterousness then Angels & Demons is the right film for you. It has enough heart racing action scenes and although the ending is very long, the twist in the tale, though predictable is never less than fitting for the film.