The Matrix meets Dogma

Rating: 6/10 (28 July 2005)

First of all, I have to admit that I didn't watch the whole movie. My daughter had rented it from the local video store and I came in a few minutes after the start.
If Matrix was an exploration about the nature of reality, Constantine is an exploration about the nature of suffering.
Like Yin and Yang, in Constantine God and Lucifer both hold some sway over the affairs of the earth. There seem to be some higher "rules" that keep things in balance between the presence of good and evil forces in our current dimension.
Constantine himself is a person who is attuned to the presence of these good and evil forces. He is able to apply various techniques on them, including "deporting" demons back to hell when they cause problems.
If there is a God who allows suffering in this life just for "our own good", then maybe like Constantine we aren't so happy to embrace him. The alternative, embracing Lucifer and a future in Hell, is even more unpleasant. So Constantine tries to define his own future while he can.
Unfortunately the movie is not consistent in the stance that God and Lucifer are equal and opposing forces. For example, I don't recall Constantine ever "deporting" an angel, only demons. And God rewards Constantine's self sacrifice at the end by welcoming him into heaven (only to be thwarted when Lucifer removes Constantines diseased lungs and restores him to life). Is good really better than evil? It looks like maybe it is.
The picture of reality being a game played by cosmic rules reminds me of Dogma. Similarly here, the rules of the Roman Catholic Church and similar constructions limit both the humans and the gods. I know the writers of Dogma were poking fun at those rules. I'm not so sure about Constantine.
Spoiler
The plot of the movie is that the finely tuned balance of good and evil influences on earth is going out of whack. Constantine is very busy trying to restore the balance. He meets a pretty police detective and they work together. In the end we discover that the angel Gabriel has been diddling with the system in order to have an overabundance of evil on the earth. Gabriel contends that men are at their best when they are undergoing suffering and trials. So to increase the goodness in man trials and suffering should be increased. Gabriel ends up becoming human (and enduring some of the suffering he so blithely employs), Constantine is delivered from both Hell and Heaven, and boy meets girl.
The end.