Liked it but flawed

Rating: 7/10 (27 April 2005)

For some reason i was actually quite excited about Constantine. I go to the cinema a lot anyway but i hadn't actually been excited about a film for a while. Constantine pretty much lived up to my expectations but it had a couple of problems that stopped it from getting a higher vote.
The cast was generally pretty good, I'm still confused as to why Keanu keeps getting roles in big movies considering his limited acting ability but he's saved by a quite able supporting cast. Keanu's dead pan demeanour does fit his characters permanently miserable outlook however. The special effects are all fairly good and the action scenes are well executed but what lets the film down is it's script and the general pace of the film.
The script isn't a huge problem the dialogue just seems a little clunky in places but the film feels quite slow. When the philosophy starts to take over the film looses all momentum and then has a hard time building it up again. A couple more set pieces may have stopped this from happening but if the people behind this film are considering making a franchise out of it then this problem may disappear like in the first x-men film when a little too much time is spent in setting the scene.
Overall Constantine is a bit stupid in places and a little slow but this doesn't stop it from being one of the more enjoyable films to have been released in a while.