Boasts good visuals and special effects, but offers little else outside of this

Rating: 2/10 (28 November 2015)

John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) is a supernatural detective who has developed these supernatural abilities as a result of a near-death experience. Detective Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz)approaches Constantine for help after her twin sister Isabelle is found dead following an apparent suicide. Dodson doesn't believe that her sister did kill herself as she would have been sent to Hell as suicide is something that was against her religion (being a Catholic). Dodson senses that something other worldly made her kill herself and asks Constantine to help her to discover the truth.
I haven't read any of the comics upon which this film is based upon so my comments will be confined to the film alone. The first problem I had with this film was with the tone. Most films that are based on comic books have a sense of fun about them and that's something that's really lacking here. This is even more baffling when you look at the silly and far-fetched premise. The fact that such a silly story was delivered with a straight-face for the most part felt rather strange to me. The straight-storytelling becomes more of a problem when you actually look at the mind-boggling narrative which pulls you in all kinds of directions and fills your head with all kinds of religious mumbo-jumbo all of which amounted to very little. Again if the film would have been more fun it might have worked better in a daft 'tongue-in-cheek' manner, but the baffling narrative takes away more than it adds rendering the film an insufferable bore for almost its entire running time. For the record I also felt that the final act went on for way too long and ended up being more ridiculous than profound.
Another problem here lies with the acting; Keanu Reeves isn't the greatest of actors and simply lacks any kind of charisma and is dull throughout. Shia La Boeuf also puts in a rather forgettable performance and adds very little to the film - his character also seemed to get side-lined for about half of the film for reasons that are beyond me. When he was in the film I got the impression he was intended as comic relief, but he isn't given any amusing material to work with. For me, it was only Peter Stormare that added some lift to the film in a performance that was fun, silly and over the top. I think Stormare knew what film he was in and basically gave a silly performance that matched the silly material.
Aside from a fun turn from Stormare the only other thing that's worth mentioning are the visuals and special effects which were good. However, it's evident when watching this film that most of the budget and time went on making the film look stylish and not much thought went on anything else. Sadly, Constantine is merely a triumph of style over substance.