Angels & Demons : the movie (and the novel too)

Last week, I took a walk to the closest movie plex, very curious to see what kind of movie Ron Howard made from Dan Brown's novel "Angels & Demons".

I should start saying "The Da Vinci Code" was a big disappointment to me : not so well adapted story, tasteless Audrey Tautou (she was great as Amelie Poulain but really not great as Sophie Neveu) and Tom Hanks giving a very minimal overview of what he can do. Speaking of Tom Hanks, he sometimes gives me the feeling that he acts thinking "I was so good in movies like Forrest Gump that I have nothing to prove, and I won't". That's exactly how I felt watching "The Da Vinci Code".

So I had not a lot of expectations. But still was curious. I'm curious. All the time.

As a result, I was almost surprised to enjoy the movie, and even to to think it was quite good.

Actually, I found it was way better than The Da Vinci Code. I would even dare to say the movie was better than the novel. Why ? Because I think the story was better adapted, cut a the right place (I found the first part of the novel, the part located in Switzerland, way too long). Tom Hanks is still in the lower part of his abilities but does a little better. And his female partner, Ayelet Zurer does a way better job than what Audrey Tautou did. The camerlengo character became here Irish (or was it Scottish ? or simply English ? ... anyway ...) while he is Italian in the novel, the only reason behind that is the character is played by Ewan McGregor and it was obviously difficult to make believe he might have an Italian heritage. I must say that I wasn't totally convinced by McGregor in this particular character but he does a decent job. Maybe it's because I just can't see Ewan as a priest ! IMDB tells the role was declined by Leonardo DiCaprio, even if I would have loved to see him in the movie, I do not see more Leo as a priest ;-)

Ron Howard didn't get the authorization to shoot the movie in Vatican City (no need to ask why) so a replica of St Peter's Square was build for the movie and the result is really stunning, you could really think that you are in the actual place.

Of course, it doesn't have the qualities to make a multi-awards movie but it's a good one in its own category. However, I don't think it will generate as much income as the Da Vinci Code because the buzz aroud the movie is really not as big for this one.