Angels & Demons, director Ron Howard's highly anticipated and controversial sequel to The Da Vinci Code, opens today across the country. Based on the novel by Dan Brown, the film's plot revolves around a conspiracy to murder Catholic Cardinals and use anti-matter stolen from the European particle physics laboratory CERN to destroy St. Peter's Basilica.
Though both books by Brown are wildly successful -- The Da Vinci Code is the bestselling hardcover novel for adults of all time, with more than 80 million copies printed -- Brown's writing has often been criticized. The latest to dismiss Brown's skills as an author is one of the stars of Angels & Demons, Stellan Skarsgård. In a recent interview, Skarsgård (who plays Commander Rocher, head of the Pope's Swiss guard in the film) said:
I think Dan Brown is a terribly bad writer, but he has cliffhangers after every chapter which makes you continue reading.
It's like eating peanuts at a bar. You don't like them, but you keep on eating them anyway.
Skarsgård said Angels & Demons is better than the first film because:
The story is more simple and straightforward but just as dramatic.
Angels & Demons stars Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Ayelet Zurer as Vittoria Vetra, and Ewan McGregor as Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca.