Constantine is now seven years old, and while I could remember some of the key ideas and had some fleeting images of a cross shaped pool, I realized just how much I had forgotten in the years since I’d seen it. I’m not a person to rewatch movies over and over. I will throw things on again if I’m just browsing T.V. on a boring day, but it is not often I will watch anything twice within the same year or two. This is partly out of fear that my favourite movies won’t be as good the second time, and honestly I would hate that. So after years of forgetting about Constantine I’m happy to say it is still a guilty pleasure of mine and I enjoyed it just as much or more the second time.
Constantine is, for those of you not familiar with comicbooks that aren't about the standard superheroes, the movie adaptation of DC and
Vertigo Comics Hellblazer series. For those of you not familiar with either the
comics or the movie, John Constantine is a supernatural detective who battles
the demons of hell in hope that he can buy his way back into heaven. Having
committed suicide as a young man, John has been to hell and back, and has since
made it his sole purpose on earth to “deport” demons back to hell and protect
earth in hope that one day the good he has done will outweigh his sins and he
will be allowed into heaven. Now that is one hell of a story. The movie’s plot
plays out as Constantine is sought out by Detective Dodson, to prove her twin
sister did not commit suicide. Constantine is then drawn into a supernatural
battle for supremacy as the demons of hell attempt to manifest and control
earth.
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| The standard supernatural bar. Complete with purple lighting and dark corners. |
I mean that is one hell of a story, and it makes for one
hell of a movie. Constantine may not be the most popular movie, but I have a
lot of trouble understanding why. I’m not sure if it is one of those movies
that will go on to gain a cult following, I think it will be another 10 years
or so until we know that, but I have to imagine there are a lot of fans. I mean
first off, the movies special effects are amazing. Personally, I’d say they
still hold up to most anything I see today, even for a movie made in 2005. The
movie is pretty CGI heavy, but the world is crafted beautifully and even hell
looks amazing, if a little scorching. The city of L.A. is both dark and
otherworldly while being familiar and homey. I must say, this is one movie
where I think the visuals look stunning, and are perfectly set to the tone of
the movie for any given scene, whether it is pouring rain or the white light of
fluorescent bulbs.
Now, there are a lot of things in Constantine that just rack
up the points in my book. The first is that it shares some similarities to my
favourite books, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I have a soft spot for
supernatural detectives who battle the forces of evil. While, I’m not a fan of
religion, I can get behind any supernatural portrayal of heaven and hell
complete with archangels, demons, and exorcisms. Constantine scores even more points for
sharing some similarities with another guilty pleasure of mine, Van Helsing.
Constantine, complete with sidekick in training, and helping a damsel in
distress who doesn’t quite want to be a damsel, has quite a few tricks up his
sleeves and weapons in his arsenal. Aside from the golden cross shotgun with a
dragons breath undermount, he is also packing some holy water hand grenades,
some blessed brass knuckles and is even sporting a magical tattoo. I mean does
it get any fucking cooler than that? The guy is the second most ultimate
bad-ass supernatural detective, Harry Dresden gets first, and he kicks some
almighty ass.
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| Something about the image of Reeves sitting with his feet in a bucket and a cat on his lap had me laughing uncontrollably. |
Of course, the question is, who could possibly play such a
man. Well Constantine stars Keanu Reeves, and while I’m not a diehard fan, I’d
say he does a pretty damn good job and makes Constantine one hell of an anti-hero,
with a dark sense of humour. His side kick is none other than Shia LaBeouf,
before he got all famous I think. The woman I spent most of the movie thinking
was Kate Winslet of course turned out to be Rachel Weisz, and she makes for a
good co-star, bringing the more emotional side of things to the screen. The
rest of the cast play some rather interesting characters, who I’m afraid are
mere shadows and reincarnations of their comic book selves, but they add a lot
of flavour to the world, that I only wish we could have explored more of.
At seven years down the road, I don’t think it is likely
that we will ever see a sequel. There was some talk of it in recent years, but
mostly just director and writer expressing their wish to make a sequel. There has
been no move from the studio, and by this point most of the cast has moved on,
although very few would need to return at all. I would have no problem with a
reboot at this point, but I would want it to keep much of the similar style.
While I wait for a sequel that may never come, I do intend to read through the
Hellblazer comic books, and have already picked up the first batch. I would really try and note some of this
movies weaknesses, as based on its popularity and mediocre financial success
there must have been quite a few. Maybe it was just bad timing and advertising,
or maybe people generally didn’t like it. For myself however this movie just
scores so many points and throws at me so many awesome elements that I am
probably blind to what turned away everyone else. Personally I’d say that is a
good thing.
Link:
Constantine IMDb
Link:
Constantine IMDb
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