Angels & Demons – Thou shall not compare with the book

- Film tends to change the context of the book where it was adopted for two reasons for aesthetics purpose and for making the whole story fit in a 2-3 hour Total Running Time or airing time.


This is the second movie that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures releases from the adaptation of the series of novels of the controversial author named Dan Brown. After the hit of The Da Vinci Code last 2008, the two film giants produce another Dan Brown’s novel this time it’s the prequel of the first movie, Angels & Demons and officially launched last May 15 worldwide.

I am a BOOK fan

In the book it story started in Robert Langdon’s house where at 5 AM he receives a call from Maximilian Kohler, physicist of CERN, asking for Langdon’s help to solve the murder of his co-worker Leonardo Vetra the adopted father of Vittoria who will be Langdon’s soon to be partner in solving the case of Illuminati, the same word imprinted in the chest of Leanardo. Aside from solving the murder of Vittoria’s father, Langdon must recover the stolen canister that contains the antimatter that leads them to Vatican City. The plot of the book takes place in the time where the pope recently died and the papal conclave has convened to elect a new pontiff yet four Preferiti, cardinals who are possible to be elected as the new pope was abducted by a Hassasin the same person who murdered Leandro and stolen the canister.

The novel runs in search for the Path of Illuminati in order to save the four Preferiti and to recover the stolen canister, the 4 cardinals died, imprinted by an ambigram in their chest, earth, wind, fire and water, and Langdon continues his quest to retrieve the canister.

Langdon also meets Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca or also known as Janus in the book, the late pope’s closest aide and just as Vetra and Langdon thought he was on their side to fight against the Illuminati and save the Vatican from the explosion of the antimatter where he flew the helicopter with Langdon and let the canister explode in the sky. Ventresca with a parachute escaped from the helicopter and landed at the roof of the St Peter’s Basilica while Langdon uses a window cover of the chopper as parachute and landed at the Tiber River near the Tiber Island. Just everybody thought that the camerlengo was the chosen one, they discovered that he headed the assassination of the 4 Preferiti and even the death of the Pope where as Carlo was the birth son of the pope on the process of the artificial insemination. Before Carlo was elected as pope and fears the consequences of his action he soaks himself with oil and burns himself. Langdon discovers that the Illuminati is already extinct and Carlo uses this to channel their minds to the Hassasin and the path of illumination as he awaits that he will be elected as pope by his courage. And Cardinal Severio Mortati, the host of the papal election was elected as pope.

I enjoy the MOVIE too

Like what I say in my intro, most of the film makers revised or alter contents in order to maximize the aesthetics of movie and to add some spices that will not bore the viewers. The movie changes the opening of the film, it opens the CERN where Vittoria Vetra (Ayalet Zurer) working on the antimatter to be contained inside the canister, rushing to the laboratory where the canister is located, Vittoria found his partner Solevan dead on the floor eyes scooped out of his head. While in the Harvard University, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) was invited by the Vatican Police to interpret the ambigram which is Illuminati. The setting of the film is similar to the book where the current set up of the Vatican City is that pope recently died and all the cardinals were invited for the papal conclave except for the 4 Preferiti who was abducted by Mr. Gray (Nikolaj Lie Kaaj) the person hired to assassinate the four cardinals and stolen the canister from CERN.

At the Vatican, Langdon meets Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), the closest aide of the late pope. Like in the book Langdon searches for the Path of Illuminati to save the 4 cardinals and the rest to be shown if you watch the movie because I don’t want to spoil the excitement of the movie offers though there are some telling that it’s boring maybe because some of them expected that it will be the same story in the book. We have seen the first movie The Da Vinci Code and saw how some information was altered and how the story was downsized in order to fit in the almost 2 hours and 30 minutes running time of the movie.

Yes the movie is quite brainy on the side, but what can you expect from a theological and scientific surreal book that Dan Brown created and adopted into a movie? There are two things that why you should watch the movie; first is was created visually to those who likes the book yet who has no patience the 137 chapters and 569 pages acknowledgement and excepts from the Deception Point is not included (I’m referring to the soft bound version) and second the alteration on the storyline still accepted for those who read the novel, and less controversial on the side of the camerlengo compare from the book.

Photos from the official website www.angelsanddemons.com