1.5/4  Dissapointment to the Max
This is the most dissapointing film ever filmed. I loved Dan Browns book and I was certain that producer and lead actor, Tom Hanks, would screw up the adaptation, but holy hell... I can't say to much good about it. Maybe it woulda been bet... (read full)

3/4  Illuminati Are Alive
What a great movie. Sure, it wasn't brilliant - but it did keep my interest, much better than "The Da Vinci Code" [the book was better too]. I loved how this movie was able to tell the story as well as develop the characters as well as t... (read full)

3.5/4  It has to be here
A good "follow-up" to the Da Vinci Code, Ron Howard improves upon the criticism of the first Dan Brown adaptation and makes a good, action filled film. While many criticized the first movie as having too much dialogue (people explaining t... (read full)

2/4  Entertaining Nonsense
It looks like someones prayers were answered….Just not mine. In Angels & Demons we have a film with a lot more action than its predecessor The Da Vinci Code. A lot of people out there needed Angels & Demons to pack more of a punch then T... (read full)

3/4  No more bad hair day
Certainly this was a step forward in this franchise but I won't easily say I like this better than the first one. I'm quite happy with this supposed prequel has done and it's a bit refreshing to see Hanks in action once again. Ron Howard g... (read full)

3/4  Better Than "The Da Vinci Code"
I enjoyed “Angels & Demons” more than “The Da Vinci Code” for several reasons. First is Ron Howard’s direction: In its prequel (even though, chronologically, “Angels & Demons” happened before “The Da Vinci Code” so it depends on how one lo... (read full)

3/4  Angels & Demons Quick Review
Solid movie, but I made the mistake of reading the book first. The book really was fantastic and although I wasn't disappointed in the movie by any means, it just wasn't as great as the book.

5/5 Reviewing the Blu Edition - it has everything
  by A. Dent (Minas Anor, GD)
Very briefly, I would like to begin by addressing some of the claims made about this movie in some of the more negative reviews.

Disappointment was expressed because the movie does not closely follow the book. This happens to be true. For the sake of movie-making, Dan Brown's book was not followed to the letter or even closely. However, it may be worth knowing that Dan Brown is the movie's executive producer and he absolutely approved all the major plot changes and, in fact, he confesses of actually suggesting some of the major changes. Perhaps those who read the book should treat the movie as work 'related' to the book but not THE book illustrated. It's still Dan Brown's work but this is cinematography that was inspired by his book, to be appreciated and enjoyed as a movie.

The other claim was that the book was somehow anti-Christian or anti-Catholic. I am unable to confirm this. I will not reveal the plot by providing substantial details but the movie concludes in a way the suggests respect for religious faith and the Catholic church, in fact, comes out looking pretty good.

Angels & Demons, besides being a feast to the eyes, it succeeds in arousing the viewer's curiosity in more than one area and, I'm sure, most who watched the movie and may find themselves in Rome and at the Vatican are more likely than not to actually look for some of the landmarks featured in Angels & Demons.

When it comes to acting Tom Hanks does not disappoint as Robert Langdon but Ewan McGregor lacks the gravitas we would expect from an acting Pope. Everyone else does the job but I didn't see any Oscar-quality performances and didn't expect to.

The special effects - when it comes the recreation of St. Peter Square and parts of the Vatican - are short of amazing. Like I said, the movie is a feast to the eyes and, for all intents and purposes, what you see is always Rome and the Vatican, even when the cameras were filming some California parking lot.


PACKAGING AND PRESENTATION

Sony is totally throwing the kitchen sink at us when it comes to this Blu edition. As the Blu standard bearer and main promoter, they want to show us what Blu can do to make our lives a little more interesting. Everything that you can think of when it comes to Blu-ray and more 'is in there'.

Starting with the Blu case, it's not the cheap, perforated, almost falling apart kind that some of the lesser editions are using now.

The decision to include both the theatrical version AND the extended cut on the same disc is responsible for this being a 3-disc set with a second disk carrying the special features and a third dedicated to the digital copies.

Technically speaking, the picture is, of course, 1080p and the two available sound tracks are both DTS-HD Master Audio in English and French. Surprisingly, the bonus features are shot in high-def as well with 2.0 stereo for the soundtrack.


SPECIAL FEATURES - BLU-RAY

Besides BD-Live, a number of interesting Blu-specific features are available with this release.

The Path of Illumination emulates a trail through Rome, following Robert Langdon's through 5 Roman landmarks. It has high visuals, interviews, footage from each location, even a dictionary where dozens of terms are explained. Anyone passing through Rome could walk the path with the Path of Illumination feature serving as a travel guide.

CineChat is another Sony attempt to promote more interactivity. It allows those watching the movie to organize themselves into a viewing party and actually have their chats displayed on-screen as the movie is playing.

The Movie-IQ option is a BD-Live powered option. It checks some online database and provides up-to-date information about the movie while watching the movie. Pretty cool actually, especially considering that this is not information 'burned' into the disc and it is updated, at least in theory if not in practice.

The digital copy, if this can go under Blu-ray specific features, is available for the PC, PSP (via PS3), Mac and iPod. Expires on 2/12/2010.


THE OTHER EXTRAS

Not as interactive as the BD-specific ones, they are also shot in hi-def for the Blu version, there are lots of shorts about the 'making of', actors, special effects, as expected. The featurette titled 'Writing Angels & Demons' should be of special interest because it's there where Dan Brown confesses to his specific agreement and cooperation on altering the story. Another interesting extra is on the CERN. Finally, we actually get to see and hear the real-life John Langdon, the person who served as the inspiration for the Robert Langdon character - he specializes in 'ambiagrams', of course.


MY RATING

I found this movie to be extremely entertaining and to carry sufficient 'substance' to merit watching maybe more than once. The quality of the Blu rendition is nothing short of exquisite and the extras, both Blu-specific and the regular ones are worth watching and interacting with.

Angels & Demons is a keeper and it's a 5-star in my book.

5/5 Angels and Demons
  by Carlos E. Velasquez
Angels and Demons - Columbia Pictures

Dan Brown is flying high these days. His novels are hot property in Hollywood, even before they are written. But, the fact is that the man can indeed produce great suspense literature - if it qualifies for that --, the one that can translate well into films, such as his incredibly popular "The Da Vinci Code." "Angels and Demons," I am happy to say, follows that tradition. It delivers great, smart entertainment, the one that you go to the movies for.

The film starts at the Vatican, just when it is announced that the Pope has just died. Simultaneously, we are transported to a laboratory known as the Large Hadron Collider, in Geneva, Switzerland, where scientists are about to successfully launch an important experiment which will generate antimatter. Unfortunately, once the antimatter is produced, one of the scientists handling this valuable product is assassinated and the antimatter is stolen. Enter Harvard's Prof. Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a renowned authority of symbols. He is informed by a Vatican cop that four priests - the apparent finalists to replace the Pope -- were kidnapped and that the Vatican's police was requesting his help, because the kidnapper(s) left a symbol of the Illuminati at the scenes of the crimes. Once in the Vatican, Langdom teams up with Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), an Italian physicist who was working with the antimatter experiments at the time it was stolen. They will try to put the puzzle that ties the antimatter and the Illuminati together. By doing so, they will realize, the hard way, that this is a dangerous game, in which science collides with religion and the Vatican's internal politics..

Some fans of Dan Brown's novels have criticized the adaptations of his work to the big screen -- "Angels and Demons" not being the exception --, and they may have a point. That's the danger of reading a book and expecting too much from Hollywood. However, having not read the book, I found this film to be highly provocative and intriguing, and I truly enjoyed it. In fact, I can't wait to see the installment of Brown's next book, "The Lost Symbol." I just hope that Hanks returns as Langdon and Ron Howard as its director. The formidable cast includes Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, and Armin Mueller-Stahl. The DVD is loaded with extras, such as the mini documentaries "Rome was not built in a day," "Writing Angles and Demons," "Characters in search of the True Story," and more. (USA, 2009, color, 138 min plus additional material).

Reviewed by Eric Gonzalez on November 23, 2009 for [...]

3/5 Huge improvement from the book
  by M. Prevette
The original novel, which began as a silly but fun pot-boiler, concluded with the absolute worst ending I may have ever read - just stunningly bad, one of the "WFT???????" endings, which, thankfully, has been changed for the movie to something a bit easier to believe.

I can understand people being disappointed in some huge changes from the book, but they're all for the better. The entire super-duper light speed jet was a howler, and Langdon surviving a fall from a helicopter...well the less said, the better. Brown isn't the most elegant of writers, a few years back on a 24 layover in Dubai I tried to read DaVinci Code and gave up, the hilarious use of exclamation points didn't help, and AGAIN in his newest Langdon adventure , he uses the same plot device he's used in every novel - a mysterious ( at times disfigured in some manner) assassin drives the plot, taking out everyone who can provide information and putting our hero in danger - come on Brown, this is what...the 4th, 5th time you've done this?

But yes overall the book was fun, if stupefying with it's ludicrous climax, and the Angels and Demons movie makes huge improvements that streamlined and clarified the plot to a great deal.

1/5 Terrible Movie
  by J. R. Cordova (So Cal)
Maybe they should have read the book before they made the movie! The book is great but the movie doesn't hold true to the book at all and was very disappointing.

5/5 Outstanding Blu product filled with hours of reading
  by Steve Kuehl (Ben Lomond, CA)
I actually liked how this package ended up taking more time to read than watch (and I did watch both versions). Regardless of your take on the book to film translation or beliefs, the film came across on Blu wonderfully.

The Blu clarity is finite throughout with the only shortcomings being the CGI and green screen lines. The DTS was superb, though the score drowns out some material a few times, but certain sequences were reference (the interior water sounds at unrated 48:10 and several dialogue echoes in chambers throughout). The case is a much stronger hinge than the other Blus I have rated this quarter (wish they were all made this way) and I actually had to work at breaking it.

BD DISC 1: (Films only)
Both versions of the film are playable with CineChat or MovieIQ. There was no one online yet for Cinechat so I was pretty lonely on that one. MovieIQ only takes a minute to load up on my PS3 and provides the usual plethora of IMDBish material and trivia regarding plot, actors, score, etc. The unrated plays eight minutes longer and the edits are scattered equally (1.5 minutes added in by the 24-minute mark, 5 minutes by the burning scene). The main rating change would have been in the burning sequence as they edited out all of the kills in the rated (the gore is graphic so would have garnered an R here).

BD DISC 2: (Supplements only)

Rome Not built in a Day: 17:30 minute making of. Shows the amount of CGI involved and the usual logistical stuff and interviews.
Writing: 10:09 minute Ron Howard interview narration on the script and such.
Characters: 17:10 minutes of interviews and the actors giving their takes on what they were trying to do here.
CERN: 14:50 minute documentary about the science center shown in the film. I liked this the most but I am a dork that way, will probably be the dryest supplement for most people.
Props: 11:35 minute take on the obvious need to make the stuff look good.
Full Story: 9:46 minute further making of with Ron Howard. Covers some wardrobe stuff and could have been included with the first one.
Ambigram: 4:46 minute history of the word history by John Langdon. Interesting little tidbits here adn there - especially the part (they show from the film) where his book is next to the one Hanks picks off a shelf.

Path of Illumination.
Five sections of learning material divided into two parts each, one part has Ron Howard describing the section (Plaza, Pantheon, etc.) and the other part has tons of textual info regarding the location selected. If you read everything offered it can eat up an hour or so. I think the experience is worthwhile and it contained some solid material.

DISC 3: Digital Copy and Zimmer Music software.

* The Music part (copy/pasted from text info):
" This trial version provides the full functionality of the Sequel 2 retail version. While it contains only a selection of the retail version's content, three Hans Zimmer projects with audio material from the movie Angels & Demons have been added. Feel free to modify the projects with the sounds and tools Sequel 2 Trial Angels & Demons Edition has to offer. Pictures taken from the movie have been added to the list of track icons, which are used to label individual tracks."

The installation process takes a bit as it puts in several programs - but I must not be musically inclined because the program looks overwhelming. LOTS to go through with music creation, recording, and so on - wow.

* There are weblinks and Sony website sign-up info for getting Sony stuff.

Overall, a large volume of material added to another history/drama/Hanks/Howard production that entertains the masses. Enjoy.

EDIT: A good point was brought up after I posted this review about the artwork pictured here - this set is the 3 disc BD set described (but the artwork is the same as you would get on the 2 disc DVD set).