Angels and Demons

(Movie Review)

After reading "The Davinci Code", I never bothered to continue onto any of Dan Brown's other books. (More because I'm a lazy reader than any other reason.)
However I've heard from friends that all of the Robert Langdon books are pretty much the same formula just recycled over and over again.

Assuming this movie is an accurate reflection of the book it was based off of, that appears to be true.

I enjoyed this movie slightly more than I did the DaVinci code, I think mainly because I didn't know the story before hand. And so the various twists and turns the story line took caught me slightly off-guard. (I will admit to being completely fooled by the ending.)

However at the same time, I was beginning to lose patience with another set of symbols and mysteries to be unravelled. It was cool the first time because it was unique. But the second time around, I was feeling like we had already covered this ground.
(And yes, I know this book was actually written before "The DaVinci Code", but for most of us I think we encountered it second.)

I mean, one secret society laying clues all through out art history I could believe. But when two groups do it, it starts to seem ridiculous.
And having stuck with Robert Langdon through all his puzzle solving, dead ends, and revelations in the first movie, I felt like I was loosing patience going through it all over again.

In my personal opinion (and you can agree with this or not according to your own tastes) these movies could benefit a lot from more of the "Indiana Jones" formula. A little bit of a historical mystery goes a long way. And one or two secret puzzles decoded will probably do for the whole movie. Other than that, give us exotic adventures.
We don't need to see the main character in professor mode the whole movie. And we don't need to spend the whole movie decoding puzzles.
And we especially don't need a trilogy of movies about decoding puzzles in art history. "The DaVinci Code" was fine by itself. This second movie was pushing it. And the 3rd movie (rumored to be in production) is really going to outstay its welcome.

If you want to see a movie about corruption in the Vatican, I think "The Godfather 3" was much more interesting than this was.

Link of the Day
Chomsky on Socialism, Communism & Government

Angels and Demons: Movie Review (Scripted)