Angels & Demons

[NOV]

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Dan Brown's Angels & Demons has opened today.
A&D is supposed to be a prequel to Da Vinci Code.

Anyone watched it?

[groucho070]

Don't think I will go for it. Muthal padathirku ennoda belief system ellam oorama vachu paarthittum got my intelligence insulted. Not sure this one will work for me. Paartittu sollungga, maybe you can convince me to watch it.

I wonder why Hanks want to create a franchise for himself. Well, at least he listened to the critic and got the hairstyle repaired.

[NOV]

belief system? :confused2:

[groucho070]

belief system? :confused2: :D It's complicated.

I think it helps if you have read the book. I tried reading, but got bored.

Star Trek, here I come (remba nalla reviews vanthukitturukku both from friends and media reviews).

[NOV]

I try reading? :shock:

I love the book and have read it umpteen times. And long before it became well-known. :P

p/s I was confused about your belief system. :roll:

[littlemaster1982]

Heard bad reviews about this :roll:

[groucho070]

I try reading? :shock:

I love the book and have read it umpteen times. And long before it became well-known. :P

p/s I was confused about your belief system. :roll:

Yeah, I think A&D picked up in sales, after the Da Vinci's Code became best seller after the controversy and what not. If you loved the book, I think you will love the movie. Let us know how it was, I know at least my fiance would be interested to watch it. I'd go for Hanks, who is a brilliant actor and not doing anything about it much these days.

My belief system? (Rajini ishtyle) Ee-haaa-haa-haa :P

[NOV]

[tscii]Drama, action and Rome in digital splendour
By : Faridul Anwar Farinordin


ANGELS AND DEMONS directed by Ron Howard

Starring Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Armin Mueller-Stahl

HALFWAY through Angels & Demons at a recent press screening, the screen went blank. Exclamations of annoyance followed. The scene resumed seconds later and wow, what a huge difference it was in picture quality! It was crystal clear, with colours so rich and images so vivid.

Viewers were earlier informed that the movie would be played in the conventional 35mm format before switching to digital.

Most of the members of the audience had no idea it would be in a middle of a scene with Tom Hanks swimming in an indoor pool, but all was forgiven the moment it came back on.

What I’m trying to say is this: Catch this movie played in digital format at selected cinemas (visit www.gsc.com.my).
For discerning movie buffs, the 2D digital format of this title (for the first time in the country) marks the dawn of a new cinematic experience.

Hanks reprises his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (with a better hairstyle as compared to the laughable bouffant do in the 2006 The Da Vinci Code) in the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-selling fiction, Angels & Demons.

The pool scene is an important one. That’s where Langdon is summoned by the Vatican to help out with an incoming threat in a form of an ancient secret society known as the Illuminati, which has had a bad history with the Catholic Church for centuries.

The drama, intrigue and action continue shortly after the Pope’s death, where four Cardinals who are the favourites to be elected as the next Pope (called the preferiti). are kidnapped and scheduled by the hour to be killed in a series of innovative and gruesome death sentences.

Langdon teams up with scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) to break codes and symbols in a race against time to save the Cardinals and the Vatican City from an impending catastrophic annihilation from a stolen high-tech time bomb.

The movie is a lot of talk, with much time given to explain what’s what in the Catholic Church’s organisation and how the system works immediately after Pope’s death.

There’re action scenes here and there, and the bulk of the excitement comes from Hanks in his pursuit for the truth.

Unlike The Da Vinci Code, there’s not much biblical reference in Angels & Demons, focusing instead on the goings-on in the Vatican City and its culture, Italian history and its ancient beliefs and mythology. It can be a “heavy” lesson which is fine on paperback.

If The Da Vinci Code is intriguing with its revelations and discoveries that unlock what is supposed to be dark biblical secrets, Angels & Demons is a glamorous and glossy Roman adventure for Dan Brown’s stoic character Langdon.

The beauty of Rome shines in this movie, thanks to the digital format of the screening, making it one of the best tourism videos about the city (although some of them were built in studio) — St Peter’s Square, Piazza Navona, Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon, and Castel Sant’Angelo.

With cameras hovering above and around the iconic historical buildings and landmark in high definition, you’d gasp in delight to see such gorgeous backdrops to this murky story about politics, power play, murder and secret society.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/Features/200
90513182400/Article/indexF_html

[NOV]

The DVC didnt live up to my expectations Rakesh. Furthermore they screwed up the ending and changed several parts of the story. I dont expect AnD to be any better.

About your belief system, this confused me....
Muthal padathirku ennoda belief system ellam oorama vachu paarthittum got my intelligence insulted. Not

[NOV]

Angels and Demons - :thumbsup:
maybe because I have forgotten the details of the book. :lol:
Film was racy and Tom Hanks was good.

Best part for me was the direct insight into Vatican City. WOW!

[groucho070]

Angels and Demons - :thumbsup:
maybe because I have forgotten the details of the book. :lol:
Film was racy and Tom Hanks was good.

Best part for me was the direct insight into Vatican City. WOW!Did they actually shoot inside the Vatican City?

[NOV]

Did they actually shoot inside the Vatican City?I was wondering about that too... but even it if was not within, the reproduction was superb.

one thing missing in the film was the firm denial of creation thoery. :P I guess they had to compromise on that to even step into Rome. :lol:

[littlemaster1982]

The production had to build a scale replica of St. Peter's Square since Vatican officers banned the movie from being filmed in its grounds.

IMDB - Trivia (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808151/trivia)

[NOV]

Shooting began on June 4, 2008 in Rome under the fake working title "Obelisk".

Roman Catholic Church officials found The Da Vinci Code offensive and forbade filming in their churches, so these scenes were shot at Sony.

The Caserta Palace doubled for the inside of the Vatican, and the Biblioteca Angelica was used for the Vatican Library.

When recreating the interior of St. Peter's Basilica, production designer Allan Cameron and visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton recognized the 80 feet tall soundstages were only half the size of the real church. They rebuilt the area around and the crypts beneath St. Peter's baldachin, including the bottoms of the columns and Saint Peter's statue, and surrounded it with a 360 degree greenscreen so the rest could be built digitally.

Cameron had twenty crew members photograph as much as they could inside the Sistine Chapel, and had artists sketch, photograph and enlarge recreations of the paintings and mosaics from the photographs.

Cameron chose to present the Sistine Chapel as it was before it was cleaned up, because he preferred the contrast the smoky, muted colors would present with the cardinals. Although the chapel was built to full size, the Sala Regia was made smaller to fit inside the stage.

The Saint Peter's Square and the Piazza Navona sets were built on the same backlot; after completion of scenes at the former, six weeks were spent converting the set, knocking down the Basilica side and excavating 3 1/2 feet of tarmac to build the fountain. As there had been filming at the real Piazza Navona, the transition between it and the replica had to be seamless.

To present the Santa Maria del Popolo undergoing renovation, a police station in Rome opposite the real church was used for the exterior; the scaffolding would hide that it was not the church. Cameron built the interior of Santa Maria del Popolo on the same set as the recreated Santa Maria della Vittoria to save money; the scaffolding also disguised this. The film's version of Santa Maria della Vittoria was larger than the real one, so it would accommodate the cranes used to film the scene.

To film the Pantheon's interior, two aediculae and the tomb of Raphael were rebuilt to scale at a height of 30 feet, while the rest was greenscreen. Because of the building's symmetrical layout, the filmmakers were able to shoot the whole scene over two days and redress the real side to pretend it was another.

The second unit took photographs of the Large Hadron Collider and pasted these in scenes set at CERN.


:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

[NOV]

all the above from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_&_Demons_(film)

[NOV]

[tscii:b9115a2712]
In India, parts of the movie were censored following complaints from local Christian communities.


In Samoa, the film was banned by principal film censor Lei'ataua Olo'apu. Olo'apu stated that he was banning the film because it was "critical of the Catholic Church" and so as to "avoid any religious discrimination by other denominations and faiths against the church".


Angels & Demons grossed $150 million worldwide in its opening weekend, including $48 million in the United States and Canada and became the #1 movie in the world for that week.


Overseas Angels & Demons maintained the #1 position for the second weekend as well even with the release of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian which opened at #2.


The Da Vinci Code had opened domestically to $77.1 million, but the sequel's opening met Columbia Pictures' $40–50 million prediction, since the film's source material was not as popular as its predecessor's.


The film has grossed more than $350 million worldwide so far, and it's eventually the largest grossed film of the 2009 so far. [/tscii:b9115a2712]

[groucho070]

Wanted to suggest you move them here. Lucky you did. Veeru hubbers paarkala poola irukku?

[NOV]

I didnt move... just copied :P

yeah, I dont think other hubbers watched this film... I guess the heavy subject must have intimidated them :cry:

actually the book is heavy ... the film is relatively easy watch.