Scares the Hell out of you

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2006)

Just to think that such battles are going on everyday around our lives makes you think that there's a whole other dimension that is fighting tooth and nail for your soul. Your soul is so valuable that a war rages around you fighting for it.
If you are an agnostic, surely a film like this would open the door to the possibility of such a conflict.
Here's some background information on angels and demons that helps to better understand the motivations of the characters in this film:
Satan, the most beautiful angel God ever created, so much wanted to be ruler of the universe that he convinced a third of God's angels to join him in polluting the world God had created.
Satan showed these fallen angels the forbidden act of sex. And not with only with humans, but sex with every conceivable animal and insect. Satan promised them pleasure and to make them rulers of the universe. They could have and control whatever they wanted and didn't have to worship God any longer.
Satan failed in his mission to became all master and decided in taking it out on mankind, he did everything he could to drive a wedge between God and humanity. For every soul Satan gets, he celebrates and lets his demons (former angels) torment these souls night and day, hurting them in every possible way. Physical and mental pain.
God gave us a way out of Satan's tricks but few take the path. Films like Constantine remind us the horror that awaits us all if we choose the wrong path. While Satan is brilliant, he thought that God was sending Mankind's savior on earth and that if he could get the children of Israel to reject this person called "Jesus", most of the battle would be done and God would have to give up earth to Satan's control where he would own mankind and do with them as he wished.
But God is smarter. He knew that there's no way He could send Jesus to earth and allow man's freewill to accept Jesus. It just wasn't going to happen. Satan knows Biblical scripture as well as does God and felt that God was wasting his time.
The only chance God had was to allow Jesus to preach the word and and heal the sick and bring back the dead. Satan was ready for that. He drove the Temple Jews to ask the Romans to kill Jesus thus ending this whole problem.
But what Satan missed was that Jesus acted as a final sacrifice for all of mankind, forgiving them all of their sins and anytime the people of God sinned, they could call to God for his forgiveness as hi final act of mercy on earth.
Satan didn't see this coming and was beyond angry. Now, mankind had a way out and Satan would have to fight a new battle on a new battlefield, making his job much harder. Gone were the silly stupid phoney Gods of Zeus, etc. now he would have to square off with the Son of God himself.
The film had a lot of great visuals but veered from the Bible in a number of ways that could easily have been fixed. Gabriel should not have been portrayed in that manner and should have been played as a female.
The film is definitely better than the comic book with its' rambling storyline and theological universe. In the comics, Constantine lives in a world where all the gods and their pantheons exist simultaneously.
The film-makers came very close to making an excellent film. Nevertheless, it's still scary and I recommend it.