Last night we went and saw Angels and Demons (it was that kind of Sunday) - the new Ron Howard/Tom Hanks number, sequel to Da Vinci Code. Secret: I've read both books. Both were super corny, but teach you enough weird facts/legends/actual conspiracy that they're get-through-able (especially if you happen to be living in the Honolulu airport for a number of days).
Anyway, so in A&D, the Pope dies, and you learn all about the old, weird, traditions of picking a new Pope. In the book, this is fine, cause you can learn/read history-type things and don't need a specific voice. The movie however, doesn't have a narrator, and relies on characters to throw out these facts, and work them into casual conversation three or four times, which is SO AWKWARD.
Newscastor: "today the Pope died, and the cardinals will meet in conclave to choose the next Pope, probably from among the four most popular choices, the preferati."
Tom Hanks: "OMG! They've been kidnapped! The preferati - the four most likely candidates for the Papacy!"
Swiss Gaurd: "The preferati, or favorite options for the next Pope - are gone!"
They also explain what an ambiagram is eleven or twelve times, and while they're scoping out Roman architecture looking for places hostages will get killed, Tom takes the time to shout: "An obelisk - an extended Egyptian pyramid!", or later, "a pentagram! The star with five points!" That's probably why this movie was a billion hours long, and probably also why HZ described it as "the movie with the least amount of subtext ever".
Specific problems:
The first "public execution" takes place underground, in a crypt, under a shut down church.
Some things happened in slower than real time.
The whole thing takes place in one day. The lighting (outside - as in whether the sun is still out) changed, moment to moment. Oops.
Parts that are good that I forgot from the book:
partical collider!
stealing eyeballs out of people to fool retinal scanners!
twist ending!
All of this with a moral about how science and religion should really just learn to get along. We saw this in the theatre 17, where someone got shot for texting.
2 comments:
ambidiagram?:
what is it?
As usual, your review of the movie is better than the movie possibly could be.
Do you remember all this stuff after, or do you text notes to yourself, risking life and limb to get us all the facts?
PHYSMU
which in Greek, is pronounced "FOOZMOO"
Oh, Chris, an ambigram is the same word, upside down and right side up. In this movie, the ambigrams are of the four scientific elements, fire, earth, water, and air. ("These are ambigrams! They're the same word upside down! This is for one of the four elements - fire, earth, water and air!" x4 or 5).
Post a Comment