What classics did you see last week, Apr 30 to May 6?

{Spoiler}

{Spoiler}

{Spoiler}The best of the Robert Langdon movie trilogy...

I'd heard the hype surrounding The Da Vinci Code movie, never read the book, never saw it at the theatre, eventually hired it on DVD (remember hiring DVDs?) and...was pretty bored by it. I've come around to not-minding it on subsequent viewings when it's been repeated numerous times on TV, but I much prefer this second film. I saw this one at the theatre, hadn't read the book...which I think helped me enjoy the movie, as I felt this one was the most interesting/had the best pacing and actually felt like a proper movie mystery/thriller. It's my favourite of the trilogy and the one I've rewatched the most. I think, as a whole, Angels & Demons is just a better-told film. It isn't slow-paced/plodding along with a drawn-out conclusion like The Da Vinci Code was. Although Ron Howard directed all three films in the trilogy, this is the one that kept me interested throughout (even during the 'slower' moments). Tom Hanks seems more at ease in his role as Robert Langdon this time around; his likeability ensuring the audience cares what happens to him, and his delivery of exposition (of which there is quite a lot) thankfully didn't ever really bore me. I never saw what the big deal was about his hair in the first film, but any who feared that his 'do would be the 'demon' from the title of this film needn't fear, as it's shorter now.

The biggest improvement with this film over its predecessor, I thought, was Langdon's female partner he's paired with this time around. As the intelligent and beautiful Vittoria Vetra (who I found much more interesting than Audrey Tautou's Sophie Neveu from the first film), Ayelet Zurer is more of an 'equal' to Hanks's Langdon. They make quite the team, and Vittoria proves that she can indeed keep up with him (which is especially impressive since, as I heard Tom Hanks himself say during a radio interview when the film was being released, 'like every beautiful particle physicist...she wears Manolo Blahniks whilst running on cobblestone'). It's a bit of a shame, however, that unlike the beginning and end of the film, the middle is spent with her character and Langdon separated. After enjoying the two of them onscreen together so much at the start of the movie, I was disappointed they split up for what felt like quite a long period of time midway through. The actors have a nice chemistry, there's an ease/comfortableness between them, and I was amused during one scene that showed Vittoria's much more blunt/direct approach to getting what they needed as quickly as possible and Langdon's reaction to it. The two of them also obviously got a lot of exercise during filming, given all the running around that's involved.

Ewan McGregor is another actor who brings an instant likeability to his character, Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, and I think the movie benefited from this considering the direction in which the film goes with him. It's important we like him. McGregor really owned the last third of the film with his performance, I felt. While there are other somewhat important characters in the movie, I felt these main three were the most memorable. Unfortunately, I wasn't as interested in this movie's bad guy; The Assassin (because *all* of these movies HAVE to have one of those, apparently). Nikolaj Lie Kaas wasn't as intriguing a villain as Paul Bettany's albino monk, Silas, was in the first film (though at least this assassin gives a reason for not killing Langdon, despite having several chances to do so, rather than it just being because he's the lead and therefore has plot armour/can't die). Stellan Skarsgård (who I like in some films, but not others) wasn't overly likable here either. Much better were the characters of Inspector Olivetti (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Chartrand (Thure Lindhardt, who it was fun to notice in this movie after having seen him years later in Seasons 3 & 4 of the TV series Bron/Broen aka The Bridge). His character shares quite a memorably tense scene with Langdon at one point and Lindhardt ensures that his character makes an impact despite limited screentime.

This movie has a sense of humour that the first film didn't, but it's certainly not a laugh riot either, as there are several instances of gruesomeness, thus making it a far more intense film than the first. Hans Zimmer's score helps sell the suspense. The FX used in this movie illustrate the way CGI *should* be used (to help add to the film, rather than distract from it). The climax of the movie isn't quite what you might be expecting, as there's more to the story than first appears, and so long as you don't have a problem with reading subtitles, you should enjoy this film. Angels & Demons doesn't take itself too seriously (which is a plus, given the far-fetched circumstances) and is never dull. Apart from finally finding out just what exactly "anti-matter" is, the other thing I learned from this film was that being a Symbologist wouldn't be so bad a job, especially when you get to hang with a beautiful enigmatic Italian scientist. If only it were actually a job!

{Spoiler}