saw it on fri nite in a packed theatre.
i never read any of the books. couldn't be bothered.
davinci code the movie just bored me into a near-coma. it was all just yak yak yak, exposition followed by more exposition. a terrible, terrible movie which broke rule number 1 of cinema: show, NOT tell.
so when my friends told me angels & demons the book was much better, i wasn't exactly impressed or reassured. but i decided to watch it anyway.
and to my (mild) surprise, it is SO MUCH better than dvc! a HUGE improvement, in fact.
this movie had a very direct, forward-driving narrative. basically it's a race against time, set within a very narrow time frame (5 hours, i think).
so on that level, it worked. tom hanks was tom hanks. which is neither good nor bad for me. i liked ewan's performance, he had this gentle, soft-spoken demeanor which kinda threw u off guard. for good reason.
but there were still quite a few cringe-worthy moments and plot points that almost ruined the movie for me. i won't go into detail, but i'll just say they were along the lines of: vomit-inducing preachiness, and ridiculously cliched mustache-twirling "villain" moments that pretty much gave away the so-called twist. (somebody mentioned scooby doo. that's a spot on analogy.)
but overall, i did have a reasonably good time watching it. and since i have ZERO emotional investment in the franchise, it didn't affect me either way, unlike say, wolverine.
worth a watch at the theatre, if only for the gorgeous on-location shoot.
