Hollywood, I blame you

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2016)

The character of John Constantine was born from the pens of Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben. He was originally a side character in The Swamp Thing comics, but very quickly moved to his own adventures in Hellblazer. He's the epitome of a blue collar mage, getting by with the skin of his teeth, some guile and a boat load of punk attitude.
The character has numerous problems. He's arrogant, not very strong magically, has a bad habit of getting his friends killed while saving his own hide, is very much rage against the gates of heaven kind of punk and is always biting off way more than he can chew. And that's why we love him. But that's not exactly something that you can make a Hollywood movie out of. So when they announced they were going to try anyways, I was suitably nervous. And for a reason.
I mean, if you don't take into account that it's a Hellblazer movie, it's by most definitions fine. Keanu Reeves easily pulls off the detached arrogance needed, the special effects are nice, the storyline, while a bit high-flying, is definitely interesting and the whole one man against all the forces of hell slash occult style the film has going for it is very cool indeed.
But, it's a Hellblazer adaptation and as such it fails miserably. I mean, the character of John Constantine is a blond, atheist/agnostic, British barely-a-mage with a real problem with firearms. Reeve's character is a dark-haired Catholic living in New York, with huge magical talent and more than filling to pump someone full of lead. And Chas, originally a middle-aged, unhappily married childhood friend of John's, with absolutely zero interest in magic, has been turned into teenage wanna-be apprentice of his. Tell me that's there's nothing wrong with the picture painted here. I dare you.
By all means, do see the film if you're into all that Catholic exorcism style of fantasy. It's very good in that regard. But, if you love Hellblazer and the character of John Constantine, I'd steer clear.