# "Angels and Demons" film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 14, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876 "2008-06-14T00:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/1 "2008-06-14T00:09:48Z")
I (and many others, I’m sure) only read Dan Brown’s novel [_Angels and Demons_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_and_demons) because it was by the author of _The Da Vinci Code._ It’s generally meh – worth reading only for what it teaches about Vatican City (especially the Vatican Library) and the monuments and historical sites of Rome. (Did you think the Swiss Guards were purely ceremonial spear-carriers in silly costumes? Apparently they’re a highly professional elite law-enforcement outfit.) Like _TDVC_ it involves the Catholic Church, puzzle-solution and hidden conspiracies, but the plot is even dumber. This week I found out they’re making [a movie.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_%26_Demons_%28film%29) (I was listening to an “All Things Considered” account of Bush’s visit to Rome, which mentioned there was so much street protest and police response to same that the _A&D_ crew had to suspend filming.) Tom Hanks is in it. So, what can we expect? Will it be any good? At least the plot (of the book) does have lots of action, danger and racing-the-clock suspense in it. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/2 "2008-06-14T00:43:26Z")
I liked _Angels and Demons_ better than _The Davinci Code_, so I’m kinda looking forward to this. But just “kinda”, as I was disappointed in the other movie. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/3 "2008-06-14T09:57:30Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I (and many others, I’m sure) only read Dan Brown’s novel [_Angels and Demons_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_and_demons) because it was by the author of _The Da Vinci Code._ It’s generally meh – worth reading only for what it teaches about Vatican City (especially the Vatican Library) and the monuments and historical sites of Rome. (Did you think the Swiss Guards were purely ceremonial spear-carriers in silly costumes? Apparently they’re a highly professional elite law-enforcement outfit.) [/QUOTE] A shiver of horror ran down my spine as I read this. Please – as you value your credibility – double check any information you think you may have learned from any Dan Brown book. Although there are superficial similariites, the world of Dan Brown’s characters (and I suspect Dan Brown himself) is not our own, and is at odds with observable reality. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/4 "2008-06-14T10:31:48Z")
Indeed. _Angels and Demons_ is worth reading for the same reasons _The Da Vinci Code_ is (i.e. however you feel about one, you’ll probably feel the same about the other), but **not** for “what it teaches.” ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/5 "2008-06-14T11:07:55Z")
As mindless idiotic bollocks go _Angels and Demons_ IMO will make a much better movie than _The Da Vinci Code_. Ron Howard makes well crafted good looking movies. He can be OTT and takes things to seriously but that should contrast nicely with the silliness of the story. I’m actually kinda looking forward to seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/6 "2008-06-14T11:23:32Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I (and many others, I’m sure) only read Dan Brown’s novel [_Angels and Demons_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_and_demons) because it was by the author of _The Da Vinci Code._ [/QUOTE] Wouldn’t that be a good reason for _not_ reading it? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/7 "2008-06-14T14:16:35Z")
[QUOTE=WotNot] A shiver of horror ran down my spine as I read this. Please – as you value your credibility – double check any information you think you may have learned from any Dan Brown book. Although there are superficial similariites, the world of Dan Brown’s characters (and I suspect Dan Brown himself) is not our own, and is at odds with observable reality. [/QUOTE] Oh, I **know** he bases everything on pseudohistory, but what I was talking about appears to have been very well-researched. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/8 "2008-06-14T14:52:30Z")
Huh. I was sort of under the impression that the first movie flopped, but apparently it earned almost 800 mil. I guess that explains the making of a sequel. Was the first film any good? I thought Da Vinci Code the book was decent airplane reading, but that A&D was over the top even by that standard. That’s the one where: The guy jumps out of a plane and uses a seat cushion as a make-shift parachute and lives? right? ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/9 "2008-06-14T14:59:27Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Oh, I **know** he bases everything on pseudohistory, but what I was talking about appears to have been very well-researched. [/QUOTE] Oh, pseudohistory’s fine – pseudohistory can be fun. Dan Brown’s is dull and unconvincing, but that’s not his biggest problem. It was > [@](#): > > worth reading only for what it teaches about Vatican City (especially the Vatican Library) and the monuments and historical sites of Rome that I was reacting to – it may \*appear \* well-researched, but it isn’t. I’m sure many of the things he presents as fact are accurate (Rome is in Italy, I know that much) but seriously – he gets so much wrong that you simply can’t trust anything he writes. Try looking [here](http://www.dannyscl.net/2005/01/dan-brown-is-fraud-list-of-errors-in.html) for some of his errors. For example: > [@](#): > > - Brown describes Santa Maria del Popolo as “askew at the base of a hill on the southeast corner of the Piazza. The eleventh-century stone aerie was made even more clumsy by the tower of scaffolding covering the façade.” (259) The church sits on the northeast corner of the piazza, not the southeast corner, as this map shows. Also, the current building dates from the 15th century, not the 11th, as Brown asserts. Later Langdon muses about the number of entrances the church has, remembering that “Most Renaissance cathedrals were designed as makeshift fortresses in the event a city was stormed.” (261) Santa Maria del Popolo is not a cathedral and if, as Brown claims, it was built in the 11th century, it’’s not Renaissance in any way. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/10 "2008-06-14T16:18:54Z")
> [@Prashan Pathak](#): > > - In a useless flashback, Langdon recalls a lecture he gave in his Symbology 212 class where he tells his class that “The practice of ‘god-eating’ -– that is, Holy Communion -– was borrowed from the Aztecs.” (243) It’Â’s unclear exactly how this would have occurred, seeing as the communion has its roots in the Last Supper (somewhere around 30 C.E.) and the Aztec civilization did not rise until the 14th century. Even if the Aztecs had been around when the practice of communion began, thereÂ’s was no contact between Europeans and inhabitants of Central American at that time, what with Columbus not reaching the New World until 1492. From that same site, hehe. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/11 "2008-06-14T16:21:27Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Wouldn’t that be a good reason for _not_ reading it? [/QUOTE] Oh c’mon already, it wasn’t that bad :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/12 "2008-06-14T16:26:53Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] From that same site, hehe. 😃 [/QUOTE] And… that was not quoted by Prashan Pravik. I have no reason why I grabbed the last responder’s name. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/13 "2008-06-14T16:59:57Z")
[QUOTE=Simplicio] Huh. I was sort of under the impression that the first movie flopped, but apparently it earned almost 800 mil. I guess that explains the making of a sequel. Was the first film any good? I thought Da Vinci Code the book was decent airplane reading, but that A&D was over the top even by that standard. That’s the one where: The guy jumps out of a plane and uses a seat cushion as a make-shift parachute and lives? right? [/QUOTE] Yeah, but he Lands in the water. Really, though, I’m not sure it’s any more over-the-top than making the main character a great-great-great etc. granddaughter of Jesus Christ. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/14 "2008-06-14T18:34:47Z")
Loved both books, loved the first movie, can’t wait for this one. _It’s fiction!_ ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/15 "2008-06-14T20:33:23Z")
I liked “Angels & Demons” up until the part **Simplicio** mentioned. Then it was just a series of :rolleyes: :rolleyes: (And I don’t get all the rabid hate for these books. They’re fiction mystery novels! What the hell?) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/16 "2008-06-14T21:10:46Z")
[QUOTE=Eyebrows 0f Doom] I liked “Angels & Demons” up until the part **Simplicio** mentioned. Then it was just a series of :rolleyes: :rolleyes: (And I don’t get all the rabid hate for these books. They’re fiction mystery novels! What the hell?) [/QUOTE] Not rabid hate, just a preference for books that aren’t stupid and badly-written, combined with an annoyance at stupid, badly-written books becoming huge best-sellers. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/17 "2008-06-14T22:17:02Z")
[QUOTE=Eyebrows 0f Doom] (And I don’t get all the rabid hate for these books. They’re fiction mystery novels! What the hell?) [/QUOTE] Part of the hate is that Dan Brown himself claimed that they were much more than just fiction mysteries. The preface to _The Da Vinci Code_ specifically said, **FACT** All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate. Therein lies the problem–Dan Brown was wrong on ALL counts. His descriptions of artwork were NOT accurate; for example, the figure seated to the right of Jesus in _The Last Supper_ was John, not Mary Magdalene. He was also repeatedly wrong in his descriptions of architecture, documetns, secret rituals, and other historical facts. Heck, he couldn’t even get the great Renaissance master’s name right! (His name was _Leonardo_, not “Da Vinci.” The latter was no surname; rather, it was merely an Italian phrase that designated his home town.) Even the non-religious should find plenty to gripe about when Dan Brown claims that his work was meticulously researched and accurate. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2008, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/angels-and-demons-film/452876/18 "2008-06-15T06:14:37Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Not rabid hate, just a preference for books that aren’t stupid and badly-written, combined with an annoyance at stupid, badly-written books becoming huge best-sellers. [/QUOTE] Which is why Dan Brown is laughing all the way to the bank