PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 2/18/05)


"Hellblazer" graphic-novel aficionados will hopefully forgive the dramatic liberties taken with the story of antihero John Constantine, an outwardly cynical, hard-living occult detective who is cursed with the gift of seeing demons and angels in their "half-breed" human forms.  Snobby film critics, on the other hand, will probably look up from their brief Internet research to chastise how Constantine's protagonist was originally written as blond, British, and therefore completely unlike star/vessel Keanu Reeves.  But listen up, fanboys and enthusaiasts of sophisticated visual wizardry: this theological noir-horror actioner—a stand-alone, rapturous good time—craftily and accurately captures the straight-faced camp, wry wit and episodic structure of its source material.  Even if Reeves is one costume change away from re-living The Matrix.

Much like it probably is in real life, Constantine's world view includes a snapshot of Hell as a tortuous, perpetually decaying fireplace of embers in the shape of Los Angeles—in which John Constantine has one foot, his other firmly on the earthly ground.  Predestined for eternal damnation after committing suicide as a teenager, Constantine was resuscitated shortly thereafter and now shoulders the self-imposed task of hunting hellions in order to seek redemption.  (How's that for Catholic guilt?)  Like a first-time reader to a mid-series comic book, audiences aren't always treated to a neatly-wrapped backstory, of how Constantine met his cabbie apprentice Chaz (Shia LeBeouf), what broke up his partnership with comrade Papa Midnite (Djimon Hounsou)—owner of a nightclub for half-breeds, why God's gatekeeper Gabriel (Tilda Swinton, androgynously looking like a Station to Station-era David Bowie) callously scorns him, or when a white-suited Satan (Peter Stormare, owning his ten minutes of screen time) became such a cartoonish hoot.  It isn't until the second act, when Constantine teams up with an incredulous cop (Rachel Weisz) that introductions to this world's "rules" are spoiled in pithy exposition. "God's a kid with an ant farm, lady," chokes the lung cancer-ridden demonslayer like a monotone Bogart, moments after slaying a squadron of winged imps by igniting a sacred shroud around his arm.

Movie logic this warped marks an uphill battle for the philosophical discussions Constantine wishes to explore, but director Francis Lawrence (transitioned from making music videos for Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears) mixes the black-and-white contrast of saint-and-sinner moralities into passably thoughtful gray matter.  Passable only because Constantine shouldn't be treated as anything but a popcorn movie, one that's clever but not actually wise, and thus flawed in its overambitious cravings to be a metaphysical monster-movie "thinker."

—Aaron Hillis

Related Links:

Finding Neo
Who's the real Keanu Reeves, anyway?

A Video Director Gets Graphic
Francis Lawrence is about to do some serious damage on the big screen with Constantine.

How many stars would give Constantine? 0 stars   0% 1 star   0% 2 stars   0% 3 stars   67% 4 stars   33% TOTAL ENTRIES: 3