Confusing and non gratifying

Rating: 5/10 (16 July 2005)

For people who haven't read the comic book (like myself), CONSTANTINE might be a bit tough to sit through, but apparently, from reading other user comments who are FANS of the comic book, their situation is the same as mine. CONSTANTINE deals with the doings of John Constantine, a "detective/exorcist" who battles demons from possessed people. John has a "special" gift, in that he can actually see these demons and prevents them from ever crossing into "our" world. The premise is very interesting during the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. Then, John's path's crosses with Angela (Rachel Weisz), a detective who has recently lost her twin sister in what seems to be a suicide. Angela firmly believes that her sister could not have committed suicide and that she was "possessed" when she jumped off the roof of a building. She contacts John for help and the rest of the movie is a battle between renegade exorcist Constantine and the forces of evil. The interesting aspect of the story is that, according to John, God and the Devil are playing almost like "chess" with mankind and that they are "betting" who will turn out evil and who will be saved and join the kingdom of heaven. Since I don't know the comic book I can only assume that it is a better read than a better watch, since CONSTANTINE drags on for too long without any defined action sequences or defined antagonists. Keanu's performance was poor to say the least. True, his wooden persona sometimes fits a certain movie (I believe he was great in THE MATRIX), but in CONSTANTINE he appears to be asking the question that drives us, "Where The Hell Is The Matrix!!!". Rachel Weisz' performances was more gratifying and it was nice to see former grunge rocker Gavin Rossdale as an evil demon. All in all, CONSTANTINE is nice visual candy but story wise it confuses the viewer with its heaven and hell philosophy. It's NOT the movie I expected and I seriously doubt there will be a sequel for this.