Beautiful dark thriller

Rating: 7/10 (25 February 2005)

Constantine is a great-looking movie that's never-the-less firmly rooted in the occult thriller genre. It's got beautiful sets, pacing, dialog and lightning.
Maybe it's a bit too set in the genre - it's similar to Hellboy, Angel Heart and Ninth Gate, among many others - but it competes very well with those, with both moody shots and tense action scenes.
It doesn't fall into the comic-book-adaptation trap of "yet another origin story retelling" - we're just thrust into Constantine's world with only as much explanation as is needed, neither less nor more.
Tilda Swinton does an absolutely outstanding job playing Gabriel.
In my opinion, the ever-uneven actor Keanu pulls of a good performance in this one. He plays this mostly in his "distanced" mode, which works well for the enigmatic arcanist Constantine.
Long-time readers of the comic (I've read all issues, I'm a big fan) should note that not only have the story been moved to Los Angeles and JC made American, the theology is also altered and is far from "canonical Vertigo continuity".
Never-the-less, this movie neither pulls any punches, nor is it dumbed down. I liked it.