Film noir meets Catholic paganism

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2006)

I don't know why so many people hear are ragging on this movie, I thought it was tons of fun. Plenty of cool special effects action, a taciturn cool guy hero and all that silly demon and angel stuff the Catholics are so in love with. Also a couple of very good performances from Peter Stormare as Satan and especially Tilda Swinton as Gabriel.
I'm wondering if the criticisms have anything to do with the odd way people react to religious themed movies. After all, the Exorcist was really dull but people loved that because somehow it clicked in the public mind, perhaps because it took demons more seriously than Constantine, which simply uses the excesses of Catholic belief as a hook for an action movie. I've also seen really dreadful, syrupy religious movies get rave reviews, once again I think because it just connects with people's spiritual needs. So maybe it helps to watch Constantine as an atheist. Anyway, I had a lot of fun.