Constantine is a movie about a precarious truce between Heaven and Hell, and how mankind is caught in the middle, and it's about a woman who's suffered a great loss. But mostly, it's about a guy who knows he's condemned to eternal damnation and is trying to do something about it. Unfortunately, the part of the guy trying to save his own soul is portrayed by an actor who fails to convey he has a soul to begin with.
John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) is an occultist who works on the side of the angels, not because he's a good guy, but because he wants to buy his way into Heaven. He meets an L.A. detective, Angela Dawson (Rachel Weisz), who asks for his help in uncovering what made her sister commit suicide. The pair soon finds itself in the middle of a demonic plot that threatens to unleash the apocalypse on Earth.
As most readers of this site know, Constantine is based on HellBlazer, a mature-readers comic book featuring a British version of the character Reeves portrays in this film. It's edgy, dark and far from the black-and-white, good-versus-evil plotting one will find on the big screen. Constantine is basically a big action, special-effects picture built around Catholic dogma. And it works quite well on that level. The story is simple but smart, and the sort of plot holes one usually expects to find in a big-budget, comic-book adaptation aren't to be found here. This is not HellBlazer, and anyone expecting it to be will be disappointed.
The film grabs the viewer's attention almost immediately and never lets go. Horror-movie elements lurk at the periphery, and those, combined with the typical action fare, make for some wonderfully explosive and bone-rattling surprises. Toward the end of the movie, it loses a bit of its intensity. It's easy to see that the filmmakers are holding back, desperately trying to avoid an R rating. Monstrous visions of demons are OK, but the audience is never allowed to see too much blood. Some of the details are watered down a bit.
This could have been a truly great action movie, something unique and memorable that would have had tongues wagging for months. It was missing one important factor: charisma. Keanu Reeves fails to bring any real personality to the title role. He seems to focus his attention on looking cool, and the only weapon in his arsenal is silence. His character is clearly embittered, and at one point, he's described as a con man. But there's no wit, no sarcasm and certainly no slyness in Reeves's performance.
Fortunately, the writing and effects are able to overcome his obvious weakness. The ideas and visuals are mesmerizing. This is definitely a movie that demands to be seen on the big screen. 6/10
