Angels and Demons & Taken

Blog No. 135: Angels and Demons & Taken

I saw, not one, but TWO movies today, 5/15.

First, I took my mom, (and by took I mean got picked up by my mom and I escorted her), to the movies to see Angels and Demons. I kinda wanted to see it at midnight, but I decided not to, especially when I got lip from my aunt on Mother's Day.

Spoiler's Warning, as usual. 

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Movie Review: Angels and Demons

I have not read the book yet, so I don't know all the details, like what'd the movie left out or what changed. All I know is that the book A&D was supposed to be a prequel to the DaVinci Code, but the movie A&D was made into a movie. So the Spoilers warning will count if you haven't seen the movie:

Tom Hanks returns as the know-it-all symbologist who is thrust into a matter of world destruction and peril, where a cannister of anti-matter has been stolen by the "Illuminati," threatening to destroy Vatican City, during a time when the cardinals reside in the conclaves and everone is in the streets to find out the new successor of the Pope. Thing is, the Illuminati has kidnapped the 4 likely candidates for the Pope and would kill off each one every hour until midnight, when the antimatter implodes and destroys Vatican City.

This movie in many respects follows the structure of DaVinci: The plot twists, the puzzles, the metaphoric meanings, etc. Then, in many respects, the movie doesn't follow DaVinci: The time frame is more intensified or streamlined in the movie, it has a focus on the comparison of science and religion as well as God and humans, and it's a little more violent. It singles out the one problem that had put the worlds of religion and science into war, humans are flawed. 'Tis why we are still in wars over religion, why we still fight over scientific evidence.

Some of the visual effects are left to be desired. It may be an account from the trained eye, but I could somewhat tell where they duplicated the people, or when they made the room look big, or how the priest parachutes from the helicopter. That could be just my eye to detail. They also didn't go inside Langdon's mind at all. I kinda liked how we saw what was going through his mind, like in The DaVinci Code where he figured out the combination of the puzzle. Not all of the animation was lost, however; I did like the explosion of light in the sky. It seemed like a huge column of heaven spitting the priest back out of the sky after the explosion. Interpret it as you will. XP

Quick Summary:

Upsides: Very in your head.

Downsides: Very in your head. --->You'll have to see the movie to find out what I mean. XP

I give it a 4 out of 5 Thumbs Up--->If you like DaVinci, then you'll love A&D. 

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Then I went home to the apartment for awhile to wait for my sister, brother-in-law, and Lennox. During that time, we saw the DVD movie, Taken.

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Movie Review: Taken

I'd consider this purely an action flick. There's some storyline, but it's mainly the character of Bryan Mills kicking ass and taking names.

The storyline: The estranged daughter gets kidnapped, and the father, who used to be a preventer, (whatever that means...), destroys Paris in order to find her. Fin.

It does get pretty interesting because, if you were ever given a chance, you would do exactly the same things he does. With that said, the scenario: unrealistic. It's the whole "the-world-is-against-me" ploy, but he does show a sliver of an affectionate side when his job is said and done.

I can't really describe much anything else here... Except the mom is such a dunce... Geez...

3 out of 5 Thumbs Up--->Only good if you want something action-y. XD

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And yeah, that was my Friday. :P