I saw Angels & Demons on Saturday & hated it.

Daryl informed me that there were a few people crying & sniffling towards the end of the show & I told him I was close to tears too. Not coz' I'm some religious nut, but Ron Howard killed the adaptation of my favourite book. The blasphemy!

I'm going to tear the movie apart, so if you actually liked Howard's interpretation, or if you don't want any spoilers, look away now.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Howard removed Maximilian Kohler. I'm still in disbelief. Kohler, head of CERN, is the exact opposite of the Camerlengo. Whereas the Camerlengo is sanctimonious, Kohler is sacrilegious. They polarize each other. He is the very essence of a man of science. Without Kohler, it just isn't a well-balanced interpretation.

Leonardo Vetra's death is replaced with the death of an insignificant lab partner. This made Vittoria nonchalant & pretty damn emotionless, very much unlike the Vittoria in the book. The literary Vittoria is fiery, & furious about her beloved father's death. She is dead-set upon hunting down the Hassassin, but at the same time, she is riddled with guilt that her invention is being used as a weapon of mass destruction.

I understand that Howard kept romance out of the movie to keep it focused, & I totally agree with this decision. However, it makes Vittoria two-dimensional. She has no personality & is forgettable.

The Hassassin in the book is a powerful, lithe, sexual Middle Eastern man, who thinks that he is part of a bigger plot - to show the Church that the Illuminati is very much alive & deeply infiltrated within. He is essentially avenging his ancestors, & gives the story more depth.

Instead, the killer in the movie is a white, bespectacled man who is motivated by money instead of agenda, turning him into a hitman-for-hire.

There are no Gunther Glick & Chinita Macri to provide the humour. & they could have done more than that. We could have followed the tragedy unfolding in the eyes of the TV viewers, & it IS relevant, proving how technology is reaching out to audiences worldwide, bringing them up-to-date with the here & now, even with the old traditions that the Church HAS to follow in such modern times. It fuses traditions with technology, which would have been a nice touch.

What is the point in showing Robert Langdon's Mickey Mouse watch when the movie isn't going to explain the backstory? It doesn't save him from the crypt like it does in the book. The watch serves no purpose, save for inciting a few laughs from movie goers.

Next - they let Cardinal Baggia live. Nice try, but I was looking forward to the battle in the fountain that happened in the book & was sorely disappointed. Additionally, the book had Mortati elected as Pope despite him not meeting the age criteria. This actually signifies change & forward thinking of the Church, which is not achieved by saving Cardinal Baggia (who is the favourite anyways).

I have no issue with them replacing Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca with an Irish guy & changing his name. I like Ewan McGregor, & I think he did a good job. But I have a huge problem with him parachuting down from the helicopter into the crowd. I mean, SERIOUSLY?

I cringed, & mock-yelled "Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!" It is just plain ludicrous.

Dude, in the final parts of the book, he is so revered by the crowd in St. Peter's Square because they DON'T know how he survived. He appears on some building & the crowd is certain that his survival is a miracle. Why would Howard portray him parachuting into the crowd, effectively removing his awe-inspiring appearance? D:

His going up in flames is kept indoors, which too, should have been in full view of the crowd.

I didn't like the last brand. What should have been the Illuminati diamond is now a papal seal. But that's merely a technicality, so I shan't nitpick more than I already am.

END SPOILERS

Ultimately, what is meant to be a thought-provoking thriller is watered down by Hollywood, essentially becoming your everyday action movie.

To sum it up in 4 words:

My favourite book, ruined.

(I know you can't compare a book to a movie, since they're completely different mediums, & there's so much in a book that don't translate well onto screen. That I understand. But what I can't fathom is why they would remove all these important & significant elements of the book, leaving the movie empty & meaningless. I didn't expect it to play out exactly like the book, but I expected it to at least capture the book's essence, which it failed to do so. Sigh.)