In various religious texts and works of art, angels and demons are regarded as the spirit messengers to the afterlife in either Heaven or Hell. Ron Howard's action-packed film, adapted from the bestseller by Dan Brown, hovers somewhere between the two planes, jettisoning the ponderous dialogue, which blighted The Da Vinci Code in favour of a protracted game of cat and mouse around Rome. The pace is certainly quicker by virtue of Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp's lean and mechanical script, which shifts the timeline of the source novel.
moreAfter the poor effort Ron Howard made of "The Da Vinci Code" I was rather apprehensive about "Angels and Demons" (which is my preferred Robert Langdon novel), but this is a huge improvement. Lessons have obviously been learned: Tom Hanks was much more convincing as Robert Langdon, having toned up and apparently woken up! There was much more action, and the film was (fairly) true to the novel's plotline. The explosion scene at the end was truly stunning.
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