In the novel, the progression is packed. In the movie, it turned out to be rushed. There are too much things being left out. I don't understand that if The Curious Case of Benjamin Button can hit the length of 165 minutes, why not Angels & Demons? It can certainly clock more than 140 minutes to follow the original more faithfully. With its strong theme and slim chance of having a sequel, it is definitely a good investment to just push the limit.
Anyway, storyline-wise, many of the twists were removed. I like twists, so when they are removed, I am not very happy. All the actions by Robert Langdon were deleted - the fight in the church on fire, the struggle in the fountain, the jump from the helicopter, the rescue of Vittoria in the castle, etc. I also wanted to see more about his claustrophobia and the Mickey Mouse watch with rotating neon hands.Vittoria had become a display vase totally. I think the adaptation kept her just so to cast the one and only female in the movie. I like the portrait of her, in the novel, being the yoga master, which is so comical and ironic at her introduction. But this was removed entirely.
The screen time of Ollivetti was also miserably reduced. He is such an interesting good man! The two media broadcasters being used by the murderer were not existent at all. In fact I was quite disgruntled with the fly-through views of the live reporters speaking in various languages at St. Peter's Square. What is the point? The scriptwriters totally missed the point! The murderer had made use of another science, the media, to created fear and sadist enthusiasm with the murdering that is just what the whole movie is all about! The extent of damage posed by the antimatter was also not touched on due to the scenes at CERN being reduced significantly. And the script even left out Maximilian Kohler!
The thing that I like in the novel is when Langdon is solving the puzzles. He too, has mental block and misinterpretations. But in the movie, he is like GOD. How the hell did he know all the cracks and nooks at the first try? They are so unreal!
The big thing that I dislike about the movie is in fact the big thing, the theme. There is a lack of focus, an undefined genre. There was a high chance that Angels & Demons could be an action thriller, with some horror. But as I listed above, Langdon's action scenes were all removed. The gross parts were all merely touch and go. Actually I was surprised the rating for this movie is PG and not M-18. The explicit details in the novel could have rendered it a R-21 if they were adapted wholesale for screen. Oh well~
And what happened to the legendary Illuminati Diamond? Omg, the scriptwriters changed it into a pair of crossing keys for no reasons!
Because I loved Dan Brown's text, I have to hate Ron Howard's film.
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