My reaction to this movie was pretty solid as I left in the theater. No it wasn't a thumbs up, and no, it wasn't a thumbs down. The thumb was planted firmly in the middle. That's a shame too, as I had been looking forward to this. The trailers looked good, and it seemed to be a role that was right up Keanu Reeve's ally. The question is what went wrong? But before we can get into that we must first give some examination to what was put up on the screen.
The driving idea behind the film is that John Constantine is essentially a soldier in the war between heaven and hell. He is able to see through the world that has been pulled over our eyes, fighting the demons of a past and for an uncertain future. This particular chapter involves the Constantine helping out a young woman detective who is investigating the apparent suicide of her twin sister. This leads to a discovery of a loophole in the battle rules between God and Lucifer that would allow Lucifer's son to cross over onto our plane of existence, thus upsetting the balance in favor of the dark forces of Hell. Actually, I think it is a bit more convoluted than that, but that is the general idea.
It is based on the DC/Vertigo comic book Hellblazer, with which I am completely unfamiliar with, save that I have heard of it before and seen the title on the shelf, but have never picked up. From what I have learned of late, it is a dark tale of the battle between good and evil and the line that Constantine treads while attempting to "purchase" his way into heaven in exchange for a deed that has essentially cut him off. That is all I knew going in. The concept is not entirely new, but the seed is there to make a compelling film, that could be paired up with the ability to create incredible visuals.
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
great stuff Chris. i have to say, i was completely underwhelmed by all the nonsense surrounding this flick. i never read the comic, i couldn't give less than a toss to be fair. But over the last few weeks i've read enough reports of it to be sufficiently intrigued, to the point were i'm really looking forward to it. Here's hoping, anyhow
2 - Chris Beaumont
Well, ya know it's hip to be comic based, even Tom Hanks did a comic book movie! ANyway, I am surprised I never read it back when I was into comics about 10 years ago. The movie is not completely useless, but it had so much more potential.
3 - Stephen De Kalb
Agree with everything you've written, but it would be remiss of me not to try and help you do what it is you do: write.
Please note in the following instances from your review -- "it's own. The seeds for that were there, but it is as if they decided to play it safe and bank the success off of it's star" -- your use of an apostraphe in "it's" is incorrect. Both instances should be simply "its" rather than a contraction of "it is" as you're using it.
Cheers, for what it's worth--SDK
4 - Tina
I seen the movie, but don't you think it was harder to kill the demon in the beginning than it was too kill the great GAVIN. Which by the way, I love him!!!! Only dumb thing in the movie.
5 - Eric Olsen
Tina, you saw the movie
6 - Chris Beaumont
I took that as being a battle with a full on demon early on while Gavin was only a half breed, thus weaker.