Faith & Science

Ahh..the much awaited movie, Angels & Demons.

Adapted from Dan Brown's famous novel of the same name, the story takes place in the most sacred place of the Christian world, the Vatican City. The world is mourning the loss of the Pope, and all are waiting for the announcement of a new Pope as cardinals are locked in conclave.

Unknown to the crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square, a sinister plot is underway by the Illumminati, a secret society of the old. 4 preferiti have been kidnapped and there is a hidden bomb somewhere, whose blast will certainly destroy the Catolic Church (and Rome with it.)

"We will destroy your four pillars,
We will brand your preferiti and sacrifice them on the altars of science,
Then bring the church down upon you,
Vatican City will be consumed by light,
A shining star at the end of the Path of Illumination. "

Reluctantly Robert Langdon, the expert on the Illuminati, is brought in by the Church to help find the missing Cardinals. Together with Vittoria Vetra, a scientist, they embarked on an action-packed, nonstop hunt across Rome and Vatican, following a 400-year-old Illuminati trail to locate the 4 altar of science - earth, air, fire, and water. Can they find the Cardinals in time? Can they stop the bomb before its too late?

Overall, the plot does not deviate much from the book. Some of the more obvious differences are:

• Angels & Demons is setup as a sequel to Da Vinci Code whereas in the book, Angels & Demons is actually the prequel;


• The last brand in the novel is the Illuminati Diamond, a combination of the 4 elements. In the film, the last brand is just 2 keys crossed with each other. It's not even an ambigram!

Angels & Demons, the novel, is one of my favourite reads. And the ambigrams are one of the things that left a great impression on me. Somehow thru the film, they don't really have much impact. As usual, books will have a great level of details which can never be translated into film. Otherwise we'll be sitting in the cinema for god-knows how many hours!

My favourite Ambigram

What the film wins over the book is of coz the visuals and the audio. If you have never been to Vatican or Rome, you can NEVER feel the majestic-ness of the two places via the book. In the film though, WOW is the only word for it. The grandness of the cathedrals is simply amazing. It can make one really eager to go there or in my case to return once again...

And great soundtrack. Well composed and suited for the scenes. You can really feel the tension, the urgency, the danger as you follow Langdon's pursuit.

Unlike the books, I prefer Da Vinci Code over Angels & Demons perhaps due to the too-straightforwardness here. Not much mystery nor riddles to be solved. Not much suspense nor surprise. Still it's entertaining, yes and I would still recommend people to watch it :)

My Rating: