Vatican Dubs Movie "Harmless"

It seems the drama behind Ron Howard's Angels & Demons has come to a head. According to TheHuffingtonPost.com, the Vatican has dubbed the movie "harmless" after viewing it.

L'Osservatore Romano ran the review, which also stated that the film was no harm to the church. It ran on Wednesday, and included an editorial along with the review of the movie, which critiqued the film based on Dan Brown's best seller.

The film's world premiere was in Rome on Monday, despite reports from Howard that the Vatican prevented the film from shooting a few shots in churches around the city. The Vatican claims that Howard's charges are nothing more than publicity stunts.

The paper wrote that the film was full of "stereotypical characters," and that it was full of historical inaccuracies. But it also credited Howard's vision, referring to his "dynamic direction" and "magnificent" recreation of some of the most famous churches in history, St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, which had to be fully recreated on sets.

L'Osservatore's reviewer stated that the film offered "more than two hours of harmless entertainment, which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity," unlike the film's predecessor, The Da Vinci Code, which was boycotted by the church and was objected to because it used the idea that Jesus was married and had children.

"The theme is always the same in both novels: a sect versus the church, even though parts of the good and the bad are distributed differently. This time, with 'Angels & Demons,' the church is on the side of the good guys."