Constantine is visually stunning; Dogma and the Matrix without the same flaws.

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2005)

It was sort of a mix of Dogma, the Matrix, and something else that was better. I know nothing of the original comic, so I can't say it kept to the story, but damn, it was good. Keanu did his Keanu thing ("DUDE!" and "I know Kung Fu."), but to a lesser extent than usual. Mostly little things like flipping off Lucifer (who was at first just called "Lu", which through me off for a second) and saying to a demon that was in a little Spanish girl's body, "I'm Constantine. John Constantine. Asshole." Some have said to me, "I was confused in the beginning." Well, if that's they're only complaint, then it's a pretty damn good movie, because you never know what's going on in the beginning; if you do, chances are the movie sucks (unless you were previously exposed to the story). There's no point to being confused; just be curious. It's obvious throughout everything that they're going to reveal it all in the end, and all the loose ends do come together. Hardly a moment is wasted on anything not absolutely essential to the plot in Constantine, save some character development (like the first scene were we see Shia LaBeouf's character, Chas, and he's imitating John by looking in the mirror of their taxi and saying over and over, "I'm Chandler. Chas Chandler. Asshole.").
The Dogma part was largely, of course, due to the film's religious aspects; John Constantine is a man who went to Hell in the few moments he was dead after trying to kill himself as a young man because he could see demons in our world. Since he knows that Hell is real, he's trying to "buy" his way into Heaven by sending half-breeds (half-demons and half-angels on Earth, who trying to influence the balance) back to Heaven or Hell. Since he has a selfish agenda, it's not a very effective method of getting into Heaven, but he continues on anyway.
The Matrix I mention mostly because of the way it was filmed. There are a few points in the movie where the angle shifts when there is no motion, but this actually makes more sense than it does in the Matrix, as it's used to show time stopping for all but one or two characters. Visually, the movie was amazing -- I'm not one who's easily entertained by images alone (not to suggest that this movie is images alone), but if I were to comment on nothing but the visuals I would have still found the movie amazing. From explosions of water to flesh burning off of demons and visions of hell, everything was realistic enough to make me jump or gape at the screen.
Constantine did not, however, have the interference of a rather bad love story. While one could, possibly, say that there are more than a few suggestions of romance between John Constantine and Rachel Weisz's character, Angela, whatever there was was not enough to shout "sexual tension!" and definitely not enough to distract from the storyline, which occurs all too often in movies today. Their connection was mostly one of being two of the few humans on Earth who know the truth about Heaven and Hell, at least to some extent.
If an intricate plot based on religion, amazing visual effects, and Constantine's flippant attitude towards his fate (as he dies of cancer) while still understanding the seriousness of it all, then Constantine may not be for you, but you'll be missing out.