Definitely underrated

Rating: 10/10 (26 February 2005)

Constantine is not very faithful to its source material, but it is definitely an entertaining movie on its own merits. It seems liked they crammed a whole lot of content into such a short period of time, leaving the film a a little underdeveloped plot wise. But, the special effects, style, and neat little metaphors, jokes and philosophical twists definitely make the movie worth a watch.
Many reviews I've read say that the philosophical aspects are a joke, and that good and evil are made arbitrary. This is far from the case. Example: In this movie, the true good, 'god,' acts in truly mysterious ways and is uninvolved directly. (Did you expect some righteous control freak?) The true evil, 'satan,' acts without regard for the desires of his evil and simple minded minions (would it make any sense for the devil to have camaraderie with his minions?)Satan wants to corrupt men's souls, not kill them like some video game with rocket launcher toting demons (his son's and minion's plans). Everyone except the ultimate evil and the ultimate good are in shades of moral grey. Constantine's "assholeness" is purely superficial (wow a few cuss words PRETTY MEAN). He has seen more of the big picture than most and just wants to know what to do (first conversation with Gabriel). Seemingly not relevant to the source material, but imo more entertaining. Though perhaps they should have changed his name and forgot hellblazer altogether.
Movie gets a 8.5/10, but i gave it 10/10 because of the Keanu bashing. It seems that ever since the corporate sponsored critics bashed Keanu's serious demeanor in Matrix Reloaded, it has become quite popular to call him wooden. He is perfect the role. This movie would suck horribly if Constantine crapped his pants every time he saw a demon, if he looked shocked after every time something supernatural happened, if he cried and laughed and emoted and his faced changed randomly like some sort of fractal graphics program. SERIOUS ROLES NEED SERIOUS ACTORS. There is no leading man in Hollywood who could have pulled off THIS role as well as Keanu does (maybe you want Colin Farrel or Tom Hanks? ) Sometimes you just need a cool looking cool acting guy to act coolly (like Arnold Swarzeneggar). Leave the dramatic actors to their dramas, and the action heroes to their action movies.