Like the film's title character, "Constantine" is in limbo; it's not a good movie and it's not a bad one.

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2005)

Like the film's title character, "Constantine" is in limbo; it's not a good movie and it's not a bad one. Instead, "Constantine" remains tediously in between what could of made it good and what could of made it horrible, resulting in an uneven, half-baked motion picture that has its moments, just not enough of them to construct an overall success.
The story, based on a series of graphic novels ("Hellblazer"), follows John Constantine, a super natural "private eye" so to speak, and his quest to gain access into heaven through his extermination of demons. Born with this curse (or "gift" as the archangel Gabriel puts it) of seeing past the earthly guises of angels and demons, Constantine seeks God's redemption, after attempting to commit the ultimate Catholic no-no of suicide back in his days of youth. Along the way, Detective Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) seeks Constantine's help in unraveling the mystery behind her twin-sister's alleged suicide, embarking the two on a journey into a too-close-to-home war between heaven and hell.
John Constantine himself, at least as portrayed in the theatrical version, isn't a very interesting character to behold. His situation is intriguing, his weaponry neat to look at, but ultimately, Constantine comes off as being your typical action-hero, lacking personality, intelligent dialogue, and the basic necessities needed to create a fully dimensional and watchable protagonist. It's hard to say whether this is the fault of the script or the casting of Keanu Reeves, but in any case, the performance can become a bit of a bore. Rachel Weisz as the spiritually curious Angela Dodson is fine, as is Tilda Swinton playing the devious angel Gabriel, but I think the best performance award in this particular film goes to Peter Stomare, who plays the role of Satan quite well the best Satanic performance since Al Pacino's in "The Devil's Advocate".
With a two hour running length, "Constantine" feels quite a bit longer than what your watch might suggest. In fact, there's a line in the movie that goes a little something like, "I was dead for two minutes two minutes in hell can feel like a lifetime." Now, I'm not going to say that "Constantine" was a hellish experience (although on a literal level I'd be somewhat correct), but it is a bloated one. Some parts of the film test patience with dialogue sequences that do not enhance character development, but rather the story itself, which can become somewhat complicated to follow if you begin calculating all of the plot holes or if you've fallen asleep midway through (an understandable possibility). I think the film has too much plot with too little development. Luckily for "Constantine", the plot is an intriguing one. What would have worked well in this case however, would have been the focus on the character of Constantine himself and his personal dilemmas, saving the rest of the material for another movie, its sequel.
Those faults aside, "Constantine" does manage to do a few things right. I found the scenes in which Constantine exorcizes demons from human vessels to be fairly well done and tense. And, like I've mentioned before, the premise itself makes for engaging material even if that material itself is stretched a little too far. The confrontation between Constantine and Satan at the end is low key, but well executed, while the special effects are reasonably good this is probably due to the fact that "Constantine" is such a dimly lit film, as opposed to a well-lit one, where special effects flaws would be too easy to distinguish.
Elements from John Milton's "Paradise Lost" are stolen and used in this contemporary retelling of heaven and hell's battles, as they were in "The Prophecy" as well, but the concept never gets old and is almost always interesting. With "Constantine" the battle feels modern and can be fun to watch when it's not boring you with the details. After watching "Constantine" though, it's hard to tell where its fan base lies. It doesn't have enough action in it to sustain the attention of the under 12 crowd; even though it has some frightening moments or elements rather, the horror junkies won't get their fill; and those seeking adventure will find a movie that has only outbursts of energy that is otherwise muddled by scenes of tedium. Fans of the graphic novels are the only ones I can think of who will, without a doubt love this movie, but even then, I'm unaware of how well adapted the film is because I've never read the source material.
The best thing I can say about "Constantine" is that it is interesting. It's not always fun to watch, but there are some fun scenes to be seen and at two hours long, there's only about an hours worth that comes across as worthy of the ticket price you paid for admission.