Saw Angels and Demons the 2nd in the sequence of movies based on the novels by Dan Brown about a secret Roman Catholic society called the Illuminati. The first movie was The DaVinci Code based on the long time best seller of the same name. I enjoyed this one at least as much as the first. This one was a bit less spectacular (the other was over the top) but this one also starred Tom Hanks, whom I do not like so much. Hanks is kind of like John Wayne. No matter who Wayne was playing, you always thought "John Wayne" was on the screen and not the character he was supposed to be.

I still really enjoyed the movie and did not find the 2hr 20 min movie too long. The time went by fast. The film was shot in Rome and at CERN in Switzerland. Some of the large shots of Vatican square full of people were obviously computer generated, and not a particularly good job. But otherwise the exteriors and interiors of the churches and chapels in Rome were gorgeous.

The physics was dubious. The plot wraps around an Illuminati plot to take over the Vatican and kill a bunch of cardinals using some anti-matter stolen from CERN. Robert Langdon (Hanks) is a symbologist hired by the Vatican to stop the assassinations and the destruction of the Vatican. He is joined by a female physicist (played by Ayelet Zurer) who is the lead researcher on the team who obtained the anti-matter in its experiments. The other researcher was a Catholic priest who is murdered by the Illuminati. The two run around Rome over the course of four hours trying to trace the path of the killer following clues based on Illuminati and Catholic symbolism.

The under story of this film is the battle between science and religion. The Illuminati want revenge over the Church's treatment of scientists in its past, notably Galileo Galilei. Moderate Catholics see the two as balancing and helping each other.

Overall the film is fun, excellent escapism and the scenery is great. So see it some afternoon or evening for a good bit of fun!