MANILA, Philippines--In ?Angels & Demons,? Tom Hanks again portrays Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, his character in ?The Da Vinci Code,? director Ron Howard?s first filmization of a Dan Brown novel. This time around, Hank?s portrayal is more active and dynamic?and fortuitously so, because it turns out that Langdon?s new investigation behind the walls of the Roman Catholic Church will require him to do a lot of running and climbing to save the lives of four cardinals ostensibly held hostage by an ancient, cultish group known as the Illuminati.
To make the situation even more daunting and dangerous, the Illuminati appears to have gotten hold of a new energy-generating device that it intends to explode as a super-bomb in the Vatican, to exterminate the leadership of the Catholic Church!
Quite astutely, the plot has been timed to unfold right after the death of the pope, before the College of Cardinals is able to elect a new pontiff. During this dark and inchoate interim, the church?s affairs are being run by a caretaker (Ewan McGregor) who turns out to have been very close to the deceased pope.
It is this character, Fr. Patrick, who works with Langdon in his mission to save the Vatican from the Illuminati, unlike many others who seem bent to frustrate him. And yet, in this thriller as in many others, things may not be what they initially appear to be, so the viewer wonders how the Fr. Patrick-Langdon partnership will ultimately pan out.
Chase and race
Also fully involved in the chase and race is a scientist, Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), involved in developing the anti-matter generating device. Now that it?s in the hands of the Illuminati, she joins forces with Langdon to make sure that it doesn?t explode and wreak havoc on the Vatican and its threatened leadership.
Finally, there?s the shadowy figure of the Illuminati?s chief terrorist, who is charged with kidnapping and executing the four cardinals, as well as with detonating the antimatter ?bomb.?
Complex motion
These and other central players are set in complex motion by Brown and Howard as ?Angels and Demons? hurtles to its near-cataclysmic conclusion. The pace sustained from start to finish is unrelenting and leaves the viewer drained?particularly when he realizes that, despite its ostensibly clockwork precision, the film is really an unwieldy mix of elements that resist integral fusion.
The key irritant is the introduction of the super-bomb, which throws the movie?s religious drama out of whack. The hostage cardinals? serial executions are also hard to take because, quite improbably, they are pretty much pulled off by just one person. To make things worse, he single-handedly kills more than a dozen police officers?and he isn?t played by FPJ!
Other confounding developments include a finale that involves a priest who, quite amazingly, knows how to fly a helicopter, and a ?shocker? of a denouement that fails to convince because it?s effected through the excessively facile ploy of the cops suddenly discovering key video evidence that?s too conveniently at hand.
Due to these and other excesses and insufficiencies, ?Angels & Demons? may occasionally be a good thriller, but when the anti-matter bomb?s dust and detritus settle, its science-versus-religion shticks and salvos simply don?t add up.
?Aliwan Fiesta? TV special
?Aliwan Fiesta 2009? will be aired over TV5 at 9 p.m. on May 27, with replays over RNTV (Dream Satellite Channel 10 and Cable Link Channel 9) on May 30 at 7 p.m. and May 31 at noon. Lovi Poe, Sam Concepcion and Ina Feleo present the TV special through the eyes of today?s tech-savvy youth. The show has been produced by Bluescreen Entertainment for the Manila Broadcasting Company. Ding Bolanos directs from a script by Susan Isorena-Arcega.
