It's Fine... If You Don'tr Know The Comic

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2005)

If you haven't read the comic series, you'll probably find the film above average, with a cool central character, an interesting interpretation of Catholic tradition and some stunning visuals. Maybe the timing is a little bit slow and the script could have been better, but overall it's a good film.
Everything changes if you know the comic book version, specially the "Dangerous Habits" saga written by Garth Ennis.
Let's forget the change of nationality and color hair of the movie character: before going to the theatre, I decided that I could forgive these "innovations" if the spirit of Constantine remained intact. And it doesn't! The external things are still there: the cigarettes, the raincoat, the bunch of weird friends... But the filmmakers only shows the sarcasm and irony of the character few times, as well as his intelligence:
(SPOILER)
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In "Dangerous Habits", Constantine managed to trick the devil himself to getting cure of his lung cancer. In the movie, he redeems giving his own life instead of Angela's one, and then Lucifer cures him for a not very well explained reason. What a wimp! Where is the smart, tricky and cunning Constantine?
Anyway, I must admit that is a good film. But there are many things hardly forgiven by the comic-book geek inside me!