The first review of “Angels & Demons” hit the streets today and apparently director Ron Howard took a different tack with his second adaptation of Dan Brown novel.
The Hollywood Reporter says the “Da Vinci Code” prequel treats The Vatican “as a fairly ‘normal’ nation-state, and not as some all-powerful SMERSH-like nemesis.”
THR:
And in the end, most of those who attacked the film before seeing it on grounds of its being anti-Catholic will have to eat their words, as the warm-hearted ending casts a rosy glow around the College of Cardinals, the papacy (sic.) and the faithful throngs in St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican itself seems to think the film is less a threat than “Da Vinci” was. Or maybe humor is now part of its press strategy.
“I’ll comment only if the film production buys 1,000, 10-year subscriptions to our official newspaper,” Papal press secretary, Father Federico Lombardi, joked recently.
But there are holdouts.
Catholic League president William Donohue wants a disclaimer placed at the opening of the picture designating it a work of fiction.
In Italy, 102-year-old bishop Monsignor Antonio Rosario called the film “highly denigrating, defamatory and offensive.”
The Hollywood Reporter, for its part, says the film is a standard thriller, more concerned with creating “a thrilling, faster-paced walk in the park” than attacking Catholicism.
In fact, Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon now works to save the church: He’s racing to rescue four top Papal candidates who’ve been kidnapped.
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