(3 out of 5 stars)

The DaVinci Code was unfairly given awful reviews.  It must have been incredibly difficult to make a movie with a surprise ending when it’s based on a book with the same surprise ending that nearly the entire world has read.  So even though the movie was well acted, beautifully shot, and wonderfully directed, everyone reacted poorly.

Thankfully, Angels and Demons was not as popular of a novel. 

In this film, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is once again thrust into religious intrigues when the Preferiti (four cardinals most likely to replace the newly deceased pope) go missing.  Also missing, is a highly explosive vial of antimatter that suddenly appears in the Vatican on a remote camera.  The Vatican is, of course, packed to the gills by people awaiting the new pope, who cannot be appointed because the Preferiti are missing.  Once the battery on the antimatter’s holding unit runs out, the antimatter will explode killing millions.  Robert Langdon to the rescue!

My problem with Angels and Demons, is that it relied too much on chance.  The DaVinci Code was strangely believable.  Angels and Demons was a lot more random, and as a result lost a lot of the tension since it always seemed Langdon’s solution would appear just in the nick of time.

Tom Hanks as usual, is fantastic.  He makes Robert Langdon a modern day Indiana Jones, only without the ass kicking.  Indy, would totally have had this one figured out quicker, with more explosions, and better wisecracks.