Not very entertaining at all

Rating: 3/10 (3 April 2005)

This movie is what i would term "promising but flawed". The premise i found to be quite decent, but the film-makers were unable to capitalize on it. And the end result is a rather dull movie that fails to deliver.
How Keanu Reeves gets to continue his mission of destroying every single project he touches is beyond me. The man lacks any discernible talent and yet he keeps on appearing in high-profile projects like this one. I won't go as far as to say that Reeves ruined this movie (far more people contributed to that), but he was one of the disturbing factors. The more deep-seated problems here are the lack of a decent script and the lack of feeling for the subject. What could have been a good setup for an action movie turns into a movie that doesn't seem to know what it wants. Which is sad really. The very good special effects and very nice photography show that a considerable amount of money and work has after all gone into this movie.
There is just too little action for an all-out action movie, too little actual story for it to be story-driven. In the end "Constantine" falls between the two genres becoming a rather slow action-movie and a very thin supernatural thriller. So, what's the problem with Reeves? Well besides his wooden acting he doesn't feel right for the part. The jaded, chain-smoking "who gives a crap" hero is far too rugged for Reeves. He's just too well-combed, too neat, for a role like this. With an actor more up to the part it could have been at least a little better. Rachel Weisz does what she can with the female lead, but she obviously struggles with her rather uninteresting character.
The main problem still remains the script though. It has serious problems with the pacing. The movie is very slow at times. It never becomes really interesting either, the story just never feels original or interesting enough to carry the movie. I think this was one of those times where the film-makers should have realized you can't have it all. Either they should have made this a no-holds-barred "Blade"-like action movie, or they should have worked on the script and ideas and try to make it a solid supernatural thriller. Because this is not very entertaining at all.
I rate it 3/10.