"Associative Looseness"

I finally saw Angels and Demons last Tuesday. I was very excited to see this since when I read the book, I was fascinated at how Dan Brown described the locations and the artworks for the path of Illumination, and finally his description of the Vatican Church and all it's protocols as well as traditions in choosing the next Pope.

Well, I was not disappointed. The artworks were amazing. My only wish though, is they could have focused more on explaining the relevance of each artwork in the clue since all we get is Tom Hanks thinking and thinking and then looking and then Eureka!!! Before we figured it out he's already running for the next clue. Nonetheless, they explained everything well and the story was true to the book. Except for the part where the Pope was actually a fan of science and that the Camerlengo was actually his son through artificial insemination (as far as I can remember?) and that's where he started hating the Pope. In addition to that, the first person who died in the lab had the Illuminati plastered on his chest, but they didn't show that. Probably it might draw a similarity on the first movie Da Vinci Code wherein the museum curator was found sprawled on the floor with writings all over his body.

If I hadn't read the book, I would have believed that the Camerlengo was actually a good guy and that he just wants peace. Ewan McGregor was really great in portraying an innocent priest who wanted nothing but the safety of the people. I would have guessed that the Head Cardinal (just like I did in the book) was the main villain. But then again, of course not.

While watching the movie, all I could think of was "when will I ever get to see this places for real?"I'm a sucker for beautiful places, beautiful artworks, historical places and sacred places. I could just spend my whole life just basking in the wonderful creations of art around me.

The theme of the movie was the battle between church and science. A long time ago, society of scholars headed by Galileo Galilei were forced into seclusion and secrecy when the church declared them blasphemous because of their experiments and beliefs that contradicts Catholic teachings and scriptures. It started with the Galileo's theory that the Earth is not actually the center of the Universe but rather only one of the objects that revolves arouns the sun. This ignited the Church's desire to destroy all scientists and their equipment, thus the Purga. The Illuminati were a group of scholars, artisans and scientists that placed their beliefs in their works in the most subtle of ways. Like in Bernini's sculptures, he uses Angels as a clue in guiding individuals in finding the 4 churches of Elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) and ultimately the Church of Illumination. Most of the artworks discussed were mainly Bernini's sculptures and it's relation to the path of Illumination.

The story was fitted in a two-hour movie and in that case some parts of the storyline got omitted. However, if you hadn't read the book, then the movie would already be enough for you. All was running and breath-taking guessing game all throughout. All in all, I am going to rate this movie a "must-see" and the book a "must-read".