Angels & Demons DVD: Review By slysnide

When Robert Langdon's expertise is called upon by Vatican City to rescue four kidnapped cardinals, he must find and follow the mythical Path of Illumination to find the Illuminati abductor's secret lair. Along the way, carnage and mistrust run amok, thus making for a quicker pace than the predecessor, and by far a more exciting adventure. Though the pacing eliminates opportunites for the viewer to solve puzzles like in the predecessor.

For the rest, reference my 106th review.

The features on Disc 1 are: "Rome Was Not Built in a Day" which describes how the filmmakers fused CGI with sets in Culver City and nearby cities. This was insightful given that much of the film takes place within Vatican City, yet didn't film there and still looks more realistic than CGI typically is with up close building exteriors. Especially with ones as iconic as St. Peter's Square, the Rotunda, and the city walls. Though the Sistine Chapel didn't appear nearly as glorious as paintings & photographs make it out to be. Perhaps Ron Howard was being honest?

The second featurette was "Writing Angels & Demons'" which is a pretty self explanatory discussion with author Dan Brown about the book to film adaptations of the characters and events from the book. He was approving of the elimination of Kohler, but oddly enough, the most butchered character--the Hassassin--is never mentioned. That was disappointing. But he also approved of the quicker pace, which was attained through cutting some of the historical jargon which would work in a book, though not in a film which strives to maintain suspense literally from beginning to end. He was much approving of this, and enjoyed it more than he expected, stating that the filmmakers captured the pacing much better here.

The third featurette is "Characters in Search of the True Story" which interviews the cast & crew about their experiences on set, which is pretty much what one would expect of any typical doc*mentary, except this was just a series of interviews rather than a 'making of' piece.

The fourth and final featurette on Disc 1 is my favorite, and by far the best: "CERN: Pushing the Frontiers of Knowledge" which is a series of interviews with members of CERN discussing their purpose, breakthroughs, and the reality of anti-matter (for those who never took astronomy in college). The interior shots of the facility are as grandiose as Chernobyl's Nuclear Reactor Room [before & after], and equally as neat to see as the other special features.

On Disc 2 are more promotional mini-featurettes, with the ultra self explanatory "Handling Props," and the longer "Angels & Demons: The Full Story" which is a 'comprehensive' making of piece. But in reality it's nothing special. The third one titled "This is an Ambigram" explains how John Langdon created the ambigrams for the film. Once again, very self explanatory.

Unless you have blu-ray...no wait, it looks just as good as in theaters. Minus the blips from the changing of the reels, so it's better in that way, like all films are. But seriously, considering that this had some large panoramic shots, then you'd get a better visual experience from watching this on a big screen TV.

While it's not as good without surround sound, the difference will be barely noticeable for those without a surround sound system for the major action sequences; especially if they're watching it in a small room with a big TV on high volume.

A blue background with 'floating heads' of the main characters and the intriguing half angel, half demon statue which is seen in the climax of the film. But as usual, it comes in the unneccessary carboard slipcase. The design of statue was cool though.

So beyond that, the second disc is ultimately something you'll watch once and never again. Maybe several years later when you've forgotten what was on them, but still nothing special. And as usual, the picture & sound is perfect. But overall, the theatrical version gets you a fairer price.