Decoded: "Angels & Demons" (2009)

Tom Hanks gets his franchise on in this brisk thriller that is head and shoulders above its predecessor "The Da Vinci Code."

Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is still a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church, who have suffered the sudden death of its Pope. In a seemingly unrelated scene, Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) and a bunch of scientists have created anti-matter, "The God Particle," which can be used to create life itself. Unfortunately, the Illuminati, an ancient anti-science secret society has exploded back onto the scene, stealing the tiny piece of anti-matter contained in a cylinder that can devastate Rome and the Vatican City if the cylinder's batteries are not recharged. The society also kidnaps the four Cardinal front-runners to be the new Pope and it's a race against time as Langdon and Vetra must use their smarts to find them before they are executed by the mysterious kidnapper (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). In the meantime, the higher-ups in the Catholic Church are dealing with an internal power struggle between the deceased pope's place-holder/adopted son Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), Commander Richter of the Swiss Guard (Stellan Skarsgard), and powerful Cardinal Strauss (Armin Mueller-Stahl).

The information dump here isn't as pronounced as it was in the first film, as if producers took notes on why "The Da Vinci Code" was such a disaster. None of the characters have flashbacks, pertinent moments in church history aren't recreated, and the Christian bashing is kept to a minimum. The original novel was a prequel to the first film, but here "Angels & Demons" is a sequel, with the first filmed story getting scant mention.

Langdon is still a superhuman know-it-all, but director Howard tones down the "A Beautiful Mind" special effects and theatrics, letting Langdon solve the mystery. There is still a lot of running around and cars zipping through the streets of Rome, but Langdon actually snaps back at authority figures who stand in the way of solving a possible apocalyptic event. Hanks has zero chemistry with Zurer, but the rest of the cast play their predictable parts well. The story moves quickly, and Langdon does fail here and there. A sense of familiarity falls over the film, and while it held my interest, I guessed every plot point and twist correctly.

While "The Da Vinci Code" lulled me into sleep on at least one occasion, the most jarring aspect of this film is the violence. How this escaped with a (PG-13) rating is beyond me. The film is gory, with multiple murders, physical mayhem, and a couple of characters getting burned alive. There isn't a supernatural component here, like the first film danced around with, and I'm not sure why the violence was ratcheted up.

In the end, while a definite improvement, "Angels & Demons" still has its flaws. It's like the other Dan Brown novels that people buy in airports before a long flight, and then leave it on the plane once they've finished it. No repeat viewing necessary here. (* * * 1/2) out of five stars.

-Rated PG-13, contains strong physical violence, strong gun violence, strong gore, mild profanity, adult situations, mild tobacco use

*Get a physical copy of "Angels & Demons" on Amazon here*