The movie adaptation of Dan Brown’s most successful novel till date, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, was a massive commercial hit in 2006. Most of the critics had rejected the film but the viewers loved it. The success of this movie prompted the producers to come out with a sequel (in reality a prequel) starring Tom Hanks as Prof. Robert Langdon yet again. The film adaptation of Dan Brown’s ‘Angels and Demons’ was directed by Ron Howard and released in the summers of 2009.
Angels and Demons doesn’t features in the same league as The Da Vinci Code. In fact the stupendous success of latter had led the 1st three novels of Brown hitting best seller’s list. So, the film adaptation of Angels and Demons was never expected to match the hype and money generated by its predecessor. Definitely Ron Howard didn’t have any sort of pressure on him to deliver. He could have used this opportunity to create a film that could satiate the critics, viewers and the fans of Brown alike. But he misses out by miles. The film didn’t get much favorable reviews from critics but the worst of all the director disappointed the fans of this second best novel by Dan Brown completely.
The biggest drawback of this film is that it deviates a lot from the original novel in terms of plots and characters. The character of the director of CERN has been left out while the character of Hassasin has been replaced by Mr. Gray, a white male. Unlike novel Prof. Langdon visits Vatican directly without visiting CERN. There are a no. of other vital changes in the plot and the events which are quite painful for an avid fan of the novel to watch.
The film fails to create memorable characters too. The character of Camerlengo has been messed up completely. In the novel his character is quite complicated and very deftly written. In the film he is a mere shadow of the character depicted in the novel. Mr. Gray is a big big disappointment. It is difficult to understand why the character of Hassasin was replaced with this one.
But still the film is not bad. For the people who love fast thrillers and have nothing to do with the novel or Dan Brown the film is a good time pass. The pace of the film is good and visually it is brilliant. Howard has kept the proceedings much simpler and so the film is comparatively easier to understand than its predecessor.
