Review of Constantine (2005) by Kora — 03 May 2011

While I am willing to concede that this movie might be slightly more enjoyable to those unfamiliar with the source material, 'Constantine' does little to make itself anything more than a dumb supernatural action flick. Whatsmore, it doesn't even succeed on that front. For those who are unfamiliar, 'Constantine' is very loosely based upon the comic 'Hellblazer' which has been in print for more than 20 years. Both, focus upon the exploits of John Constantine, though the movie has taken a number of liberties with the character. Originally blonde, British, and combining occult knowledge with urban street-smarts, John Constantine is played by Keanu Reeves in one of his worst performances to date. I personally don't have anything against Mr. Reeves as an actor, but his attempts to portray Constantine (by the way, it's supposed to rhyme with Clementine. They pronounce it incorrectly throughout the entire film.) as a troubled man haunted by his past come off as wooden and unbelievable. The one good thing I can truly say about this film, is that it encouraged me to look into the comic. Upon doing so, I discovered that most of the scenes or set pieces, that I found interesting or unique in the film, were taken directly from the comic and that the rest of the plot of the film consisted of nonsensical mythos that doesn't fit into the logic of the comic or Catholicism in general. That's not to say that I found it confusing. It simply didn't make sense. For example, the movie talks about the Demon Mammon who apparently is Lucifer's son. However, in Christian mythology, Mammon is simply a high ranking Demon in Hell, much like Beelzebub. These kinds of inconsistencies make the mythos feel arbitrary at best.

Ultimately this film fails to establish itself as a good action movie, due to poor fight scenes, and excessive emphasis on an inherently flawed mythos. It feels more like a ripoff of its source material than it does an adaptation. I can't recommend it as an action film, as a thriller, or as a horror, so ultimately I've got to give this a 3 out of 10. It isn't completely devoid of enjoyable elements, but isn't nearly as good as it *should* be.