This past Sunday night, I decided it was time for a trip to the movie theater off Richmond Ave. I checked the movie listings online and was unenthusiastic about the choices. Unfortunately, I was persuaded into watching Angels and Demons.
From the very beginning of the movie, I knew I didn't think anything of it and that it would not remain in my memory past a few weeks. To start off, Robert Langdon, a symbologist, is interrupted by an agent sent from the Vatican while completing laps around the pool at Harvard. He's given urgent news about the trouble at the holy city and decides to jump on a plane to the Vatican. Maybe it was the unrealistic qualities of this type of situation ever occurring to us normal folk or maybe it was simply the fact that this method of attracting the average viewer into a suspenseful mystery flick rubbed off a good five years ago with the DaVinci Code, nonetheless, whatever the reason was, that very scene left me with a bitter inclination toward the movie.
And my intuition was correct. From there, the movie took a stroll down memory lane or what Mr. Bennett would describe as "spitting out the same formula" that Hollywood loves to implement ever so often. Professor Landgon arrives to the scene of panic, is thrown into a mystery which he solves using a single piece of paper from Galileo's little booklet of truth about the universe and his support of the heliocentric theory and his fancy for following the pointing fingers of statues, meets leading lady figure Vittoria, the scientist behind the antimatter experiment, dodges bullets and fire to rescue the cardinals, saves the last (who becomes the Pope) and reveals the ploy of Camerlengo McKenno against the church. Phew, all in a day's work of course.
Unfortunately, the mystery lacked real depth. The most shocking part of the mystery was when the Camerlengo masterfully jumped out of a bomb-carrying helicopter seconds before tremendous explosion and managed to walk away with a few harmless scratches. (A priest that flies helicopters and knows how to professionally sky dive!) Otherwise, I have to say, the DaVinci Code had more plot and mystery. Angels and Demons was the perfect example of a Dan Brown novel discussing the relationship between religion and science plus the extra dose of action packed thriller.
And in the end, it was neither. It barely went in depth into the religious history and connections that Dan Brown lives on and in numerous scenes repeated the same information. Yet, it wasn't "daredevil" enough for a twenty first century action movie with nonstop shooting and blood and chaos absolutely everywhere.
Well, at least at the end of the day, it was $11 and 2 hour 17 minutes spent not worthwhile.
Side note: I am not commenting on the actor's competence, simply the movie plot.
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I did not read your post too carefully because I am still interested in seeing the movie although I am already expecting disappointment. This saddens me because of the book was absolutely amazing and just a great, not formulaic book. I usually expect a book to be better but I was interested to see how it is portrayed.
ReplyDeleteHopefully not too much disappointment although it appears that it will be.
At times in the past, I have found your prose style to be somewhat turgid. I was often not exactly cetain what it was that you were trying to say. My theory was that you were trying too hard. A lot of bright young writers often over-reach, using phraseology, vocabulary, and sentence constructions that are simply too complex. They try to run before they can walk, hence though they never fall flat on their faces, their gait is awkward.
ReplyDeleteThis particular essay suffers from no such awkwardness. It is clear and easy to understand. I would never stoop to see this film, of course, so your dislike of the film resonated with me, and, perhaps, made your prose even more attractive.
Let's see what your other two posts have to offer.
Mr. Bennett, that's true, I have often noticed that awkwardness in my writing and have had to go back and either rephrase or rewrite. My writing style depends on my mood of mind at the moment I sit down to write something. Sometimes I feel bombastic, sometimes philosophical, and sometimes concise and to the point. It all depends. And, of course, thank you for the compliment.
ReplyDelete