I saw this one a couple of weeks ago. At the outset, I must admit, it falls into the same trap of ‘book being a better read than it’s cinematic adaptation’. But I also truly believe it is unfair to judge a book by it’s cover and movies by their ability to adapt a best seller. Most best sellers always allow a lot of room for reader imagination, which can go wild. The movies however, are just a 120 minutes visual experience based on the directors vision and creativity.

I read the book couple of years ago and was truly captivated with the God vs Science battle, if I can put it so simply. Angels and Demons is about how Illuminati’s - a name that refers to a group of people including scientist and architects, who wants to take their revenge on the church by killing the cardinals who are trying to elect a new Bishop in Rome. It is a pretty intense plot with suspense all the way till the end. The movie is well shot, and the screenplay is exceptional. It explains the cause of Illuminati’s anger against the church, the reasons behind how and where and when are the cardinals executed. Of course, it’s fictional but it is also very real in some ways.

It is but natural to compare this with Da Vinci Code, and I think Angels and Demons as a movie is a clear winner. It retained all the cliche’s of a Dan Brown book, but a lot of other serious stuff has been stripped away. Not every scene has a reference to the source of a Novel, which made Da Vinci Code a bit of a drag. A lot more liberty has been applied to characterisation to make them look Hollywood ready.

The flip side was acting for me. Not a single performance that you can even nominate for the Oscars. It was the script and screenplay that kept me going, the actors (including Mr Hanks) were just very ordinary. So much was happening around them, the entire city was on the verge to collapse, cardinals were dying, the time lines were so tight, but they were just simply going through emotions and vomiting their dialogues.

Would also like to bring to your notice, that the friend I was watching this movie with was taking cat naps regularly in the theater. But I would not read too much into it.. seriously!