Though the movie, unlike the book, is set after the events of "The Da Vinci Code", rest assured that Tom Hanks's Robert Langdon isn't being followed around once again by incredibly inept Audrey Tautou. This time Langdon is followed around the Vatican by the Swiss Guard and Ayelet Zurer, who plays the physicist Vittoria Vetra. While she proved to be more competent, the production gained little more from her presence than physicist pulchritude which, more often not, bordered on science fiction.  

Ron Howard's movie version of the Dan Brown novel is an action thriller, although the action far outweighs the thrills. And just when you thought you couldn’t handle any more conspiracy theories, random facts, and absurd clues that it seems were left exclusively for Langdon, the pace quickens and you get to watch the action unfold. And unfold. And unfold.

The film bears an eerie resemblance to "Seven," the Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman thriller, chasing a serial killer from the ghastly remains of one torture victim to another. By objective measure, this one adds up to four-sevenths of that one, given that four prominent members of the College of Cardinals have disappeared during a conclave to elect a new pope. To find them, Langdon must find the ancient lair of the Illuminati by following a trail that is maddeningly elusive and abundantly photogenic, making the cinematography one of the redeeming factors in the movie. Predictably, Langdon and his gang arrive at each victim’s location a minute before the last one making it fairly obvious as to what happens when they get inside.

The film also tries, and very poorly at that, to mix science fiction (or soon to be science fact rather since the findings at the CERN laboratory may yield new theories) with Church lore in an effort to add even more twists to a movie that was already very knotted up to begin with.

Pious Catholics, physics geeks, Dan Brown fans, and thriller aficionados will all come away a little disappointed from this one. Sadly yet another example of a sequel not quite as good as its predecessor, of a book-turned-movie not quite as good as the book, of ancient Church conspiracy theories not quite engaging enough.