Great movie.

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2005)

Now first off I do not like comic books ( Except: Gary Larson's Far Side comics), but I absolutely LOVE comic book movies. Comic book movies have given me some of my favorite films (Hellboy, All three Blade films,Daredevil,Punisher, and Constantine are my favorite adaptations, but I love all adaptations except the Batman and Superman movies.)So in my being a comic movie junkie a was super pumped for this movie, and became even more excited when I saw Keanu Reeves(ONE O' THE BEST ACTORS EVER!)was in the lead. All the actors in this movie do extremely well for themselves. Racheal Weiz gives a great performance as Angela Dodson, bringing a very interesting performance which I have not see, nor did I expect,from Racheal. Djimon Hounsou played a uber cool Papa Midnite. Shia LaBeouf did better than I would have even dare expected from him.I do not hate Shia like many do, but neither do I think hes great, but this is easily is best performance.Even though Beeman is a small character I gotta give him credit. Beeman was my favorite side dish(dish=character)and was well played by Max Baker. And Reeves gave one of the best performances I have seen in a long time. Many complain that the writers changed the script just so Reeves could play the role, but the truth is the script was denied until the Constantine was changed to an American. That being said Reeves just nails his part right on the head. Plus I am big Reeves fan and enjoy how he pulls his parts together and I really enjoyed John Constantine's dark humor thrown here and there. The film is visually flawless, since this film is slower than most big comic adaptations it is littered with effects. And boy are the effects beautiful. This film is flawlessly directed by newcomer Francis Lawerence who brings a whole new style to the screen. The musical score is also virtually flawless. Pay extra attention to the score. Finally the story is why I give this movie 90% instead of 100%. It has a great story which is very imaginative, but is constantly confusing. Several things are unclear and poorly explained. The ending was the most confusing part of the entire movie and takes several views to understand the ending. But it did not cause critical damage to my enjoyment of the film. in short I will see it a thousand times and buy it on DVD and enjoy it for years to come. And you should too.
9/10