Angels & Demons: Review By Josh

It seems Ron Howard learned a thing or two from making The Da Vinci Code. Instead of adhering strictly to the Brown's novel, this time he feels free to shave and cut and chop the novel into what actually feels like a movie. Gone are the cheap and unnecessary historical flashbacks and the lengthy scenes of exposition. The story in Angels & Demons is told at a fly-by pace with conversations characters have while running to solve the next puzzle and stop the next murder. It's a pretty lightly plotted version of Brown's novel that simplifies its characters. This is not a subtle drama, it's a fast paced, exhilarating thriller. And Ron Howard shoots is as one. Aside from a couple shots of poor cgi work and Howard constantly feeling the need to nauseatingly spin the camera in circles it's a fairly well-shot film with some great imagery that borders on horror-film territory and some beautiful shots of Rome.

The film is actually very well-cast, with the exception of Ayelet Zurer whom I found bland and inauthentic. There are a lot of great non-American actors who get a chance to shine here. Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Armin Mueller-Stahl all play great second fiddle to Tom Hanks, who seems to be having more fun this time than he did in the first film. It's certainly not a great movie, and it more than borders on absurd sometimes, but it's a pretty good way to kill a couple hours on a Saturday night.