To begin with, I will say that Angels & Demons is better than The Da Vinci Code, both on the page and on the screen. Some of the things that made Da Vinci such a grind as a film are addressed in Angels, which was actually written before Da Vinci, but for the film treated as a sequel. Actually, that part works rather well too, there’s something about the Catholic Church coming to Professor Robert Langdon for help following the events of Da Vinci that adds another level of dramatic tension. It’s too bad that the filmmakers don’t know how to really capitalize on that though.

Tom Hanks returns as Langdon, and problems number one and two immediately rear their heads. First, despite improvements, Langdon’s still an incredibly passive hero to build a story on. He’s often times so divorced from the action, that it’s a wonder that he’s needed there at all for the story to proceed. In book form, where you can follow Langdon’s inner monologue word for word, the character’s much more engaging, but on film he always kind of seems like a Bill Bixby David Banner that’s more concerned about Hulking out than helping. Secondly, Hanks is an incredible charismatic guy, but for some reason, as Langdon, he’s as dull as a rusty knife.

The mystery in Angels concerns the Illuminati, a radicalized sect of scientists and thinkers that want revenge against the Catholic Church for forcing them underground and literally branding their leadership with Christian dogma. Of course, all this happened hundreds of years ago, but everyone involved treats it with the immediacy of an al Qaeda bomb threat. It’s a multi-pronged attack with the four chief candidates for the next Pope being murdered, one an hour, leading up to the midnight destruction of the Vatican caused by some stolen anti-matter. Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer plays Vittoria Vetra, one of the scientists that created the anti-matter and Langdon’s sexy sidekick for this adventure.

So the stakes are much higher in this one, which is a good thing. The proverbial “ticking time clock” gives the plot heft and drives the action at an excellent pace, or at least fast enough to keep you from getting drowsy from all the esoteric knowledge of Illuminati lore being thrown at you. Church politics and kooky conspiracy theories take their place in the backseat, and we’re fortunately spared a lot of unnecessarily lengthy scenes where the history is explained in excruciating detail. Also, turning Angels into a sequel to Da Vinci adds that new layer where in the Church ends up the victim in the movie rather than being played the victim. As to why the Church is supposedly in a huff about this movie, I’m not sure.

But these kinds of improvements come at the expense of interesting characters and a story where in the main character really has no personal stake in the goings on. There’s no Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing to liven the affair and the chief villain, a nameless assassin (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), is no where near as interesting a cold blooded killer as the albino monk Silas, played by Paul Bettany, and there wasn’t really anything of interest with that character either in spite of his albinism. But what else is new? It starts from the top down, and Langdon’s so disengaged from the action that the entire climax almost happens without him. Imagine the opening of the Ark scene at the end of Raiders, and Indiana Jones isn’t there because he never got on the sub to secret Nazi island.

In the end, Angels & Demons is a mixed bag of satisfying popcorn fun that really tries too hard at not doing enough. If you want to have a more cerebral action hero in Robert Langdon, by all means, but in the process of making him a walking/talking Wikipedia would it kill the façade of the professorial type if he threw a punch every once in a while. One would think that after all the stuff that went down in Da Vinci that Langdon might have hit a boxing gym for a couple of months. But he didn’t I guess, and that’s okay. But if Ron Howard and gang want to go for the hat trick with this series, then for the love of Jeff at least make Professor Langdon as tough as the Professor from Gilligan’s Island.