Angels & Demons

Drama/Action
4 stars
Excellent portrayal of the book – much better than The Da Vinci Code. Tom Hanks is at it again as a famous symbolist who is brought to Rome to solve a puzzle from a centuries-old group called the Illuminati to save 4 cardinals from being murdered and prevent the Vatican from being blown up. It’s pretty exciting, and they did have to omit a few things from the book – most notably the seemingly evil CERN boss in the fancy wheelchair. A few minor details were changed at the end, and I was disappointed they had to omit the description/details of the statue representing “fire”: the statue is called The Ecstasy of St. Teresa who appears to be in the throws of an orgasm that the church had found offensive. They do show the statue in the movie though, just no time for descriptions. I’ve read that Vatican City did not allow the filming of the movie there, but you could have fooled me – maybe they filmed some of the actual cardinals’ processions prior to the voting of the most recent Pope? Very exciting and well, it’s Rome! Good Movie.