Plucking the same violent, occult strings as Da Vinci while avoiding its leadenness, Angels... keeps the action coming for the best part of 139 minutes. Scripters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman have taken a firmer hand with Brown’s material. The opening scene, for example, omits the hypersonic Vatican jet that transports crack Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) from Cambridge to Geneva in an hour, opting for more conventional means to get him to Rome and into the thick of the action.

Although this attack of realism might disappoint the book’s diehard fans, it pays off in depicting the Vatican as a fairly “normal” nation-state, and not as some all-powerful SMERSH-like nemesis. And in the end, most of those who attacked the film before seeing it on grounds of its being anti-Catholic will have to eat their words, as the warm-hearted ending casts a rosy glow around the College of Cardinals, the papacy and the faithful throngs in St. Peter’s Square.

But back to the plot. The Pope is dead and the Catholic Church is preparing to elect a new one. The handsome young Camerlengo Patrick (Ewan McGregor), who was raised by the late Pope, is heartbroken.

Whisked to the Vatican at the behest of Inspector Olivetti (fine Italian thespian Pierfrancesco Favino), Langdon learns that the four cardinals who are the most likely papal candidates have been kidnapped. In Vatican security, he meets scientist Vittoria Vetra (sultry Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer), privy to insider knowledge about how a cylinder of antimatter was brutally stolen from the Cern labs in Geneva. It’s child’s play to put two and two together and realise that the Vatican is about to be blown up by the ticking bomb of antimatter. Into this futuristic world of protons and neutrons erupts the long-forgotten religious cult of the Illuminati, a group of 17th century forward thinkers who championed scientific truth and were forced underground by the Church. Now they’re back, in the mysterious person of a fanatic assasin (Nikolaj Lie Kaas).

Aided by Olivetti and the earnest young camerlengo, while hindered by deadpan Swiss Guards commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgard), Langdon goes about his semiotic business of pulling clues out of thin air. The story line is brilliantly simplified into Langdon’s search for the four cardinals, with Vetra and Olivetti as his sidekicks. His job is to find angel sculptures inside churches, which point to other churches. Black police cars race dangerously through the crowded Roman streets, always arriving five minutes too late to prevent the grisly death of an aged cardinal who has been branded with the word “Earth,” “Air,” “Fire” or “Water”. Hanks does a likable job of glossing over every implausibility, allowing the action to climax in gut-churning shots borrowed from cheap horror films.

Hanks fits more comfortably into the role of Langdon here, taking a moment to deliver some friendly one-liners. If Da Vinci... was criticised for the lack of sexual chemistry between its protagonists, Angels simply refuses to suggest any kind of romance between Langdon and Vetra. Their total lack of a relationship is so stunningly successful that it passes unnoticed. This allows Koepp and Goldsman to concentrate on what the audience really wants to see: burning cardinals, spectacular explosions and incomparable studio reconstructions of baroque Rome.

Vatican reaction
Howard has accused the Vatican of trying to hamper his filming in Rome of Angels & Demons, and they had to recreate scenes of the Vatican and some Rome churches in Los Angeles.
He has also blamed the Vatican for using its influence to get an event tied to the movie’s Rome premiere cancelled. “They certainly didn’t want to cooperate with (the movie),” Howard said.
The Da Vinci Code upset the Vatican and some Catholics because of its storyline, in which Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children, creating a royal bloodline that Church officials kept secret for centuries.
Christianity teaches that Jesus never married, was crucified and rose from the dead. But Angels & Demons does not raise questions about Jesus Christ. Howard said that was one possible reason why the Church has so far avoided the kind of open confrontation that characterised its reaction to The Da Vinci Code. “The hot-button issues of The Da Vinci Code spoke to some of the really fundamental principles of the faith. I think it was much more provocative,” Howard said.
Vatican observers say that the Church also appeared eager to avoid giving publicity to the movie by reacting to it. “I hope the movie is very respectful to people of faith and we went out of our way to make sure that there are characters that make very valid arguments for all the good that the Church also accomplishes,” Howard said.