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Seemingly unconcerned with offending Vatican officials, Ron Howard and Tom Hanks place their latest collaboration, "Angels & Demons," on the altar of public opinion in hopes that a high gross will prove their salvation despite a plodding, exhausting adventure.

The film is set as the sequel to the equally controversial "The Da Vinci Code," but it's not required viewing.

After the pope's death, the four most likely candidates for his successor are kidnapped, and the Vatican's sworn enemy, the Illuminati, has apparently resurfaced with plans to kill one of them every hour before detonating a bomb that will destroy Vatican City.

Harvard religion expert Robert Langdon (Hanks, "Charlie Wilson's War") is called in to lend his assistance in determining where the assassin plans to strike next, and teams with scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer, "Vantage Point") to stop the plot.

During their travels, they encounter the pope's most trusted aide, Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor, "Star Wars Episode III — Revenge of the Sith"), and Commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgard, "Entourage"), head of the Vatican security force, who doesn't take kindly to Langdon's assistance.

Screenwriters David Koepp ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") and Akiva Goldsman ("I Am Legend") adapt Dan Brown's novel and put together a script that's more cerebral than your typical summer movie. Instead of sprawling car chases and shootouts — which are still plentiful here — a greater emphasis is placed on solving mysteries of artwork and deciphering secret codes.

Hanks' Langdon is an interesting hero, as he's always a step behind the bad guys, almost to the point where you begin to question his expertise, even if he's portrayed as the smartest guy in the room in every scene. If he was a superhero, he'd be dubbed Hindsight Lad — he's a great guy to have around five minutes after a crime's been committed.

While he's clearly an intelligent man, he makes mistakes and isn't particularly heroic, making him a flawed, yet intriguing, protagonist.

The assassin makes for a far better hero, as he can take out squads of police officers with hardly a scratch, making them look so incompetent they would need someone like Langdon to save the day.

The plot plays out fine for the most part, but logic is sacrificed in the final act, which relies on far too many conveniences and everything playing out just right for Langdon to determine the real culprit. Worse, Koepp and Goldsman go against their own established logic in order to have a dramatic conclusion, but it comes across as forced and terribly anticlimactic.

Issues with plot aside, Howard's ("Frost/Nixon") direction is intense and keeps you at the edge of your seat throughout, making even mundane activities like going into the Vatican Secret Archives exciting. He takes sweeping angles to really capture the majesty of sculptures and the meticulously detailed St. Peter's Square stand-in (the Vatican wouldn't allow the movie to be filmed at the genuine article), and does his able best to make the film at least feel special.

With a 138-minute run time, "Angels & Demons" is not a quick affair, and by the time it's over, it leaves you feeling more like you've survived a long ordeal, rather than enjoying a fun summer epic. Maybe Howard and Hanks should have uttered a few "Hail Marys" before filming?

Angels & Demons

PG-13; Drama; minutes

Director: Ron Howard

Cast: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Thure Lindhardt, David Pasquesi and Armin Mueller-Stahl

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars