Angels and Demons – the movie

I had reread the book a second time just recently. It is a complicated book which offers a lot of explanation into particle physics, some believable crap 🙂 about anti-matter, how it was created and stored by these scientists in a laboratory at CERN in Switzerland. The author also launches into lengthy narratives about the conflict between the Catholic church or religion and Science, and the secret society of scientists called the Illuminati who were persecuted by the Church in the earlier centuries. A lot is also explained about the various architectural styles of the statues and Churches in Rome which bored me and some details about Christianity which enlightened me. Frankly, Dan Brown does his research well and then mixes true facts with a fictitious story beautifully. Ron Howard does a commendable job of making a movie out of it. To compress the storyline in a little over 2 hours is an achievement. The basic plot remains the same but certain parts are tweaked around as a cinematic liberty. The most notable change is the climax of the story.

The basic plot is that The Pope has died in the Vatican. There is a Papal election scheduled and the “Preferriti” ( the 4 Cardinals most likely to become Pope) are abducted by someone claiming to be Illuminati who promises that they will be executed on the Altars of Science every hour starting 8 p.m. There is also a plot of this speck of anti-matter stolen from a lab at CERN and that has been planted somewhere inside the Vatican which would go off by midnight leveling the Vatican. Mr. Robert Langdon – an American symbologist is called in to help with the investigation to find the criminal and the bomb in time. Ms. Vittoria Vetra who alongwith her father had helped develop this anti-matter secretly also helps out hoping to catch the person who murdered her father. The movie is fast paced and thrilling and a cat-and-mouse chase between the criminal and the good people. The end is significantly changed and actually I liked it to the “miraculous” one offered in the book :). The sights of Rome and Vatican are beautifully shown though apparently they got no permission to shot in the Vatican city. Tom Hanks does a good job. The person playing the camerlengo did not come across as powerful as his character in the book. The character of eccentric CERN Director has been done away with in the movie.

Overall, a very watchable movie and it is even more enjoyable if you have not read the book 🙂 because then you would not end up comparing things. Hey, and I did not understand what the Church objected to; if anything the book brought out the necessity of religion and morality very beautifully.