L'Osservatore Romano reviewers have judged that Ron Howard's film Angels & Demons is commercial and inaccurate but ultimately "harmless'' entertainment.
The Vatican paper ran a review and an editorial in Wednesday's edition, critiquing the movie based on the Dan Brown bestselling novel of the same name, SF Gate reports.
The newspaper wrote the movie was "a gigantic and smart commercial operation" filled with "stereotyped characters." The paper suggested moviegoers could make a game out of finding the many historical inaccuracies in the plot.
However, L'Osservatore praised Howard's "dynamic direction" and the "magnificent" reconstruction of locations like St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Much of the film was shot on sets that painstakingly recreated church landmarks.
The film offers "more than two hours of harmless entertainment, which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity," L'Osservatore's reviewer wrote. It's "a videogame that first of all sparks curiosity and is also, maybe, a bit of fun."
"The theme is always the same in both novels: a sect versus the Church, even though the parts of the good and the bad are distributed differently," L'Osservatore wrote Wednesday. "This time, with 'Angels & Demons,' the Church is on the side of the good guys."
The editorial said the novels presented the Church's positions in a "simplistic and partial" way. It said the success of Brown's works should push the Church to rethink the way it uses the media to present its message.
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Vatican paper: 'Angels & Demons' film is harmless (SF Gate)