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By Cole Smithey

‘Angels and Demons’

Starring Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Stellen Skarsgard, Ewan McGregor and David Pasquesi. Rated PG-13, 138 minutes

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For the entire Catholic Church’s hullabaloo over Dan Brown’s novels, Ron Howard’s “Da Vinci Code” sequel is an exuberant cinematic adaptation that combines elements of horror, religious tradition and high-tech suspense to give audiences a non-stop thrill ride.

Tom Hanks returns to his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon who gets urgently summoned to Rome to assist the Swiss Guard, led by Stellan Skarsgard’s Commander Richter, and the Vatican, in solving a mammoth crisis. The recent death of the Pope has left the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor) — the temporary acting head of the Vatican State — overseeing conclave proceedings marred by the kidnapping of four eminent cardinals by the infamous Illuminati, who have promised to kill one cardinal each hour leading up to midnight when it will explode an antimatter bomb of unfathomable devastation.

Aided by Italian physicist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), Langdon jockeys between the Vatican’s sealed archives to various churches, attempting to follow the Illuminati’s path and save the lives of the four cardinals and locate the bomb in time to diffuse it. The story goes into an extended triple climax that is so preposterously over the top that any concern for the sanctity of religion or historic fact falls to the wayside. It may not be the best thriller you’ve ever seen, but it is the best one of the year, so far.

The story’s far out parameters are established inside CERN (the European Council for Nuclear Research), a vast complex laboratory that holds the Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle accelerator in the world. Deep inside its imposing confines an unseen Illuminati interloper murders one of the technicians and removes one of the man’s eyes to pass through pupil-identifying security corridors and obtain a canister of freshly minted anti-matter that resembles a literal if tiny amount of lightening in a bottle.

Screenwriters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman have abbreviated character aspects of Brown’s book — Vetra is left out of much of the action — in favor of building up a climax that, regardless of its absurdity, takes your breath away for the sheer boldness of Howard’s execution. Most impressive is the non-CGI look of colossal action sequences that will challenge even the most diehard Brown detractors to not be entertained.

Unlike “The Da Vinci Code,” everything here has been carefully thought out. Some of the early exposition falls from Hanks’ mouth like odd chunks of misshapen marble, but everything after the first act proceeds like a well-oiled Ferrari. The film is not without humor, and Hanks walks a fine line, letting the audience decide when it’s time to laugh at his less graceful moments. Hanks seems not to take Langdon’s character as seriously as he did in the first film, and his relaxation allows you to trust in him as more than a mechanized narrative instrument. When Langdon falls over with a bookshelf that he’s using to break out of an enclosed room in the Vatican archives, it’s an easy laugh. We’re on a ridiculous journey with a guy who, for all of his book smarts, is a bit of a simpleton. The best part of all is that there’s no romance. After all, this is a thriller, by God. CV

‘Star Trek’

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban and Eric Bana. Rated PG-13, 126 minutes

Movie Trailer

Fusing a carefully chosen cast with stunning sci-fi spectacle, and a storyline that retains the workmanlike elements of Gene Roddenberry’s original television series, director J.J. Abrams successfully forms a new beginning for the Star Trek franchise.

Going back to the calamitous astral circumstances of James Tiberius Kirk’s birth, the story builds as the young rebellious Kirk (Chris Pine) joins the Starfleet Academy at the advice of U.S.S. Enterprise veteran Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Fast friendships, rivalries and romantic overtures connect Kirk to Dr. “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban), Spock (Zachary Quinto), and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) before the crew is thrust into the thick of their first mission aboard the latest version of the Enterprise. Dark Romulan leader Captain Nero (Eric Bana) sets a trap for the Enterprise to enable the destruction of the planet Vulcan and Earth. Abrams savors establishing the relationships and quirks of Roddenberry’s Star Trek characters that arguably outshine every other sci-fi on-screen legacy. The ensemble succeeds in capturing the essence of his or her iconic character, and an extended cameo by Leonard Nimoy adds considerable flavor to the exhilarating spectacle on hand.

Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wisely choose to focus their story on the circumstances and personal characteristics of Spock and Kirk that bind them as friends and natural-born leaders. Spock’s heritage as a half-human Vulcan, whose emotions can interrupt his otherwise coldly logical approach to situations, exhibits a jealous competitiveness Kirk taunts with his purposeful physicality and strategic gamesmanship. When he defeats a training program that Spock has developed, Kirk is brought before his Starfleet peers and publicly put on probation by Admiral Barnett (Tyler Perry) for “cheating.” Spock’s visible sneers glance off Kirk who’s fast-friendship with the flight-fearing Medical Officer McCoy insures that Kirk will gain entry to the pending mission regardless of his persona non grata status.

The film’s main trump card is the way it balances lush astrophysical designs against the mammoth constructs of the Romulan vessel, and yet manages action set-pieces rooted in the kind of contained surroundings that gave the TV series its fuzzy underbelly. An exciting sequence involving a gigantic Romulan drill looming down on the Vulcan planet engages Kirk in some good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat, while Sulu (John Cho) exerts martial arts influenced sword play. It’s a deliberate kind of action set piece that suggests a dose of humor for its restrained technology. There’s nothing forced or heavy-handed going on.

“Star Trek” is about a multi-ethnic culture working together to connect with the unknown. With its built-in mission statement, it represents a culture of civility and understanding that is universal. Perhaps that’s why the filmmakers have strived so hard to maintain the essence of a television series that has spawned more spin-off than any in the history of TV. This, however, is a movie that must be relished on the big screen to fully appreciate how big Star Trek has gotten. Indeed, Star Trek has lived long and prospered. CV

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