[9mm_fan]

[tscii]Drama, action and Rome in digital splendour
By : Faridul Anwar Farinordin

ANGELS AND DEMONS directed by Ron Howard

Starring Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Armin Mueller-Stahl

HALFWAY through Angels & Demons at a recent press screening, the screen went blank. Exclamations of annoyance followed. The scene resumed seconds later and wow, what a huge difference it was in picture quality! It was crystal clear, with colours so rich and images so vivid.

Viewers were earlier informed that the movie would be played in the conventional 35mm format before switching to digital.

Most of the members of the audience had no idea it would be in a middle of a scene with Tom Hanks swimming in an indoor pool, but all was forgiven the moment it came back on.

What I’m trying to say is this: Catch this movie played in digital format at selected cinemas (visit www.gsc.com.my).
For discerning movie buffs, the 2D digital format of this title (for the first time in the country) marks the dawn of a new cinematic experience.

Hanks reprises his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (with a better hairstyle as compared to the laughable bouffant do in the 2006 The Da Vinci Code) in the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-selling fiction, Angels & Demons.

The pool scene is an important one. That’s where Langdon is summoned by the Vatican to help out with an incoming threat in a form of an ancient secret society known as the Illuminati, which has had a bad history with the Catholic Church for centuries.

The drama, intrigue and action continue shortly after the Pope’s death, where four Cardinals who are the favourites to be elected as the next Pope (called the preferiti). are kidnapped and scheduled by the hour to be killed in a series of innovative and gruesome death sentences.

Langdon teams up with scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) to break codes and symbols in a race against time to save the Cardinals and the Vatican City from an impending catastrophic annihilation from a stolen high-tech time bomb.

The movie is a lot of talk, with much time given to explain what’s what in the Catholic Church’s organisation and how the system works immediately after Pope’s death.

There’re action scenes here and there, and the bulk of the excitement comes from Hanks in his pursuit for the truth.

Unlike The Da Vinci Code, there’s not much biblical reference in Angels & Demons, focusing instead on the goings-on in the Vatican City and its culture, Italian history and its ancient beliefs and mythology. It can be a “heavy” lesson which is fine on paperback.

If The Da Vinci Code is intriguing with its revelations and discoveries that unlock what is supposed to be dark biblical secrets, Angels & Demons is a glamorous and glossy Roman adventure for Dan Brown’s stoic character Langdon.

The beauty of Rome shines in this movie, thanks to the digital format of the screening, making it one of the best tourism videos about the city (although some of them were built in studio) — St Peter’s Square, Piazza Navona, Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, and Castel Sant’Angelo.

With cameras hovering above and around the iconic historical buildings and landmark in high definition, you’d gasp in delight to see such gorgeous backdrops to this murky story about politics, power play, murder and secret society. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/N...y/Features/200
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