Cinematographically very solid, but lousy adaptation

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2006)

First off, I'd like to say that Keanu Reeves is terribly miscast. Not because he's a monotone-voiced ham actor a lot of times, but because he looks nowhere near the guy he's supposed to depict. John Constantine's a blond, often poorly shaved, trench coat wearing mage. Yes, mage. He does perform exorcisms on a regular basis, but it's nowhere near his main line of work as this movie would illustrate.
I love the graphic novel, like I do with other things coming from DC, Alan Moore's work in general, like the 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', 'From Hell' and John Constantine of course. Especially with Constantine here, we have a case of Comic Book Genocide on our hands.
In this movie, John Constantine is a compulsive smoker destined to end up in hell, who lives a life replete with good deeds in the name of the Lord in order to try and secure himself a place in heaven.
I think the movie nails things right on; it succeeds pretty well in showing that the man in question is trying his best to come over altruistic, although at heart he is self-centered. Needless to say, Keanu Reeves seems to fall slightly short (despite an.... okay performance) as the cast supporting him consists of actors with greater talent. The first name springing to mind would be that of Rachel Weisz, who had showed her great aptitude for acting in films like 'the Constant Gardener', which is actually slightly newer than this one. Hers is the power to show a multitude of emotions with her eyes alone. Then there is Peter Stormare, who has an aptitude for playing Russian bad guys. His Lucifer was carried almost with divine evanesce. No joke. Gavin Rossdale, the pompous half-demon Balthazar, did a great job. Rossdale, a composer at heart, has great heart for rhythm, his was the power to implement slithery, almost flamboyantly 'homosexual' flair to his character. He had little screen time, but he was a love to behold.
My favorites however were Tilda Swanton's Gabriel and Shia LaBoeuf's Chas, the first scene with both granting the movie a bit of comic relief. Tilda really makes a suit look good, and she knows what she is doing. You might know her from hits like 'Vanilla Sky' or 'The Beach' and you'll be able to see her again in the new adaptation of 'The Chronicles of Narnia' too. Shia is a wonderful young actor that uses his boyish charm to the max in order to play the role of slightly gullible sidekick. One might recognize him from I-Robot, where he wants to borrow Will Smith's car to seduce his 'fine ass yummy ass hot spankable'.
Constantine has a complement of fine actors, it manages to spurt a good amount of character development; the actors have something to play with and they are not afraid to do so. Yes, there are some 'cringe-moments' when Keanu is forced to speak his character's past, but those can be forgiven. Unfortunately, the heart of the film relies a lot on visual effects. Fortunately however, the CGI and the FX guys seem to actually have an idea what the heck they are doing, because these effects are mostly pretty good. Especially the scenes that involve 'hell' are very beautiful and one of my favorite new movie moments. Also, and this is mostly a very bad thing, this movie is full with conflicting stylistic elements, but somehow in Constantine it works pretty fine, although some locations look forced and much too sudden.
There are also references, maybe, probably even, to other movies. The Spear of Destiny that was lost after World War II also had a mention in the 2004 hit Hellboy, where Adolf Hitler allegedly obtained the 'Spear of Longinus' (a different name for the same thing) after which his strength increased tenfold. In Constantine, this spear plays a crucial role in the plot. Stylistic elements include, but are not limited to, biblical references in the shape of set pieces (a painting showing the skewering of Jesus with the Spear of Longinus for example). All in all, this movie delivers a complete, intricate and captivating universe. Some of it is nonsense, but that doesn't really take any of the fun away.
My only problem, the movie's only problem, its obstinate negligence of the Alan Moore's source material, can only be solved if you are willing to brave it yourself. For example, if Constantine is your favorite Graphic Novel character and you cannot bear seeing him transformed in - pretty much - some other character with similar name, you need to give this movie a very wide birth. If you're not too bent on seeing a truthful adaptation, you might want to try this out. *** out of ****