Well, if you take it for what it is, you'll definitely be entertained

Rating: 7/10 (3 September 2005)

There are more than enough reasons this movie should suck: it's directed by a music video director, whose done no other movies so far, not even for TV or direct-to-video. It's based on a comic book, and from the looks of it, only vaguely based on it(despite the original comic being at least seemingly highly popular). It's got religious undertones, making it seem heavy-handed and/or ridiculous to many viewers. Yes, there are an awful lot of very good reasons this movie should suck... but it doesn't. It just requires you to suspend disbelief and take the movie for what it is... the story of an anti-hero battling demons and keeping the balance between good and evil. Nothing more. A fairly by-the-numbers save-the-world scenario with Keanu Reeves playing off his Neo role, killing evil creatures, usually with ease. The plot is pretty good, though at times, it's unnecessarily confusing. The pacing is pretty good, the film isn't too long for it's own good and you're fairly rarely bored. The effects are the definite high point in the film, looking exceptionally well. The action is somewhat seldom in the film, and it's mostly very quickly over with... but it looks damn good, and it's usually intense and involving. The biggest problem with the action is that Constantine says he has fought the half-breeds all his life... yet he has an easy time of killing the actual demons as well. The acting is pretty good, with few exceptions. The dialog is well-written at times, and there are some great one-liners. The great thing about the tone is that there's all these undead and demonic creatures he has to fight... so he uses holy weaponry. A Holy Shotgun, holy brass knuckles... good stuff. One of my biggest problems is the entire motivation of the 'bad guys' though. We never understand why these people(uh, creatures) do as they do. Apart from the few shortcomings, the film is quite entertaining, and surely worth the rental. I recommend this to any fan of this kind of movie(bloody action with there 'hero' saving the world) and possibly some fans of the original comic as well(just be prepared for a lot of unwanted changes from the source material). 7/10