Sunday, March 14, 2010 Previous editions
Angels & Demons (Cert 15, 133 mins, Action/Thriller)
When a research scientist is murdered at the CERN particle physics facility in Geneva, Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned to investigate.
He links a symbol on the dead man to a secret society called the Illuminati, which was thought to have died out centuries ago.
In a chilling twist, Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) reveals that a canister full of anti-matter was stolen from the laboratory and is now primed to explode within the Vatican.
It transpires that the preferiti, four cardinals most likely to be elected Pope, have been kidnapped by an assassin (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), throwing into disarray the plans of the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor) and worldly Cardinal Strauss (Armin Mueller-Stahl).
Robert joins forces with Vittoria and Commanders Richter (Stellan Skarsgard) and Olivetti (Pierfrancesco Favino) from the Swiss Guard and the gendarmerie respectively to avert disaster.
Adapted from the best-selling book by Dan Brown, Angels & Demons is an action-packed game of cat and mouse around Rome.
Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp’s lean and mechanical script trades in the convoluted history lessons and spurious mythology for unabashed thrills.
Unfortunately, by excising so much of the plot underpinning Brown’s book, Langdon is reduced to a glorified tour guide. His dialogue is almost entirely expository.
Ten minutes shorter than its predecessor The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons is undemanding fun.
Rating: ***
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