On the spur of the moment I decided to see Angels & Demons Friday morning. I've read the book, so I had a pretty good idea what I was in for. My friend Richard Bliss went with me, and he had not read the book. He hadn't planned to see this film, but got swept up by the spur of that same moment when I called him. The verdict: I liked it a lot. The plot twists were all there, and they got rid of the absolutely ridiculous "Langdon jumps from a helicopter and lands safely in water" bit. We've all seen too much Mythbusters for that to have any play. Richard liked it too, so I think that your enjoyment of the film probably isn't all that dependent on whether or not you've read the book. It might also not be that dependent on how much you liked the book. Regarding the novels, I thought the plotting in Angels & Demons was much better than in The DaVinci Code but the prose in the first was weaker, while the reveal in the second was much more interesting. On film Ron Howard is able to dispense with the weak bits of Brown's writing and just deliver on a nicely thrilling, suspenseful story with a nicely not-too-heavy-handed treatment of the theme of science vs. religion. Thus far then this summer, my rankings look like this: 1. Star Trek 2. Angels & Demons 3. 4. 5. 6. Wolverine. I'm pretty sure that any film I'm looking forward to will be able to displace Angels & Demons from my #2 slot, but its relationship to Wolverine feels about right. That particular film continues to pain me. I don't think his healing factor is working. It's been two weeks...
