Angels and Demons - Where’s Da Vinci when you need him?

I think my love of video games is making me a little more cynical toward movies. Years ago I could enjoy a mystery movie I could predict the ending of in the first few minutes. Not so much anymore. Currently the stories of video game narratives are insanely telegraphed and “ride” it takes you on is full of predictable twists and turns. I give them slack because as a medium it’s still young and bad storytelling is to be expected. Angels and Demons however, gets no slack from me. There’s a plot to destroy Vatican City and only Dr. Langdon can stop it. Then we watch Langdon “discover” the path that takes him from old church to old church looking for ancient statues of angels which point to what he should look for next. This plot is cool if you’re actually learning something about the source material like the whole Mary Magdalene thing in the first movie. It sucks when it’s “look, his spear is point toward the basement, the clue must be in there.” All the while you know who is behind the whole plot and you have to wait for Langdon to figure out he’s being played which takes nearly the entire length of the feature to figure out. The movie is well acted, but the story has no substance. It’s like someone left the chicken base out of a bowl of chicken soup and all your left with is noodles, a few bits of chicken, and water. And I could have bought a few cans of good chicken soup instead of this ticket. Angels and Demons actually needed angels or demons in it to make it the least bit interesting and it had neither. 5.0/53/C-