Monday, May 18, 2009

Angels & Demons Review

Sorry this took awhile to get up. I wanted to get the review up sooner, but I needed time to ponder what it was I watched. I'm still kind of torn, but I figured I should slap something down. It'll be short.

Angels & Demons, 9:40, Friday evening. Wait, rewind. If you remember a couple of years back when The DaVinci Code came out, you couldn't wipe your ass without seeing fourteen bajillion (a real number) ads or hearing about some new protest over how that film was shitting sixteen different kinds of shit on religion. I think people took that film way, way, WAY too seriously, but I digress.

A&D, on the other hand, seemed to get kind of lost. Same director, same star, and yet I can count on both hands how many TV spots and theatrical trailers I saw for the film. I dunno.

So, lemme preface the actual review with my thoughts on DaVinci. I never read either of the books to completion, but I did start both of 'em. I went to see DaVinci in theaters (when something infiltrates the bathroom to gouge out my eyes with advertisements, I figured I'd better) back in the day, and actually liked it. It wasn't the greatest piece of cinema I've ever witnessed, but I thought it had some nifty ideas (none of which I felt were all that "evil"). It was a nice little puzzle movie with a decent cast and crew AND it gave me some food for thought.

Angels did not. It was a mystery and a race against time and, yeah, there was more religious stuff, but it didn't really offer anything worth pondering...well, besides whether or not I actually enjoyed it. Tom Hanks was back and he had to use his scientific mind to help figure out clues and save the Vatican. Stuff happened, people died, etc, etc. It had a lot of the workings of a decent thriller/action movie, but in the end I was just kind of meh.

The action, the direction, it was all pretty good, for the most part. The scenery was cool and the idea was alright. Still, there was just something... Let me put it this way: when the credits started to role and everyone stood up, I was pretty indifferent. I had somewhat enjoyed myself, but at the same time I was glad it was done. I think the only thing that really kept me going was the who-dunnit aspect.

Let me compare it to Wolverine. Where that was a movie that was of bad quality, it still managed to be somewhat fun--partly BECAUSE of how bad it was--and, thus, ended up with a 5.5 from me. Angels & Demons is going to receive the same overall score. Not because of bad quality but good entertainment (or vice versa) causing that score to meet somewhere in the middle, but because everything about it was just that: somewhere in the middle; not bad, not particularly good, just acceptable.

Ultimately, after time to consider it all, I think Angels & Demons was actually a pretty forgettable film. Sure, I'll remember the plot, but the details will get lost like tears in the rain.

Yes, that was a reference to Blade Runner. Why did I add it? I don't know. But since I did and we're now on the topic, if you haven't seen it, do so. Excellent film.

Angels & Demons: 5.5/10

Terminator Salvation will be watched tomorrow (Tuesday night/Wednesday morning) at midnight. That film, I hope, will be much more worthy of a labor-intensive review. That review should be up around Wednesday or Thursday.

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