Product: Constantine [Blu-ray] (2012)
Rating: 4.0
"It's called pain! Get used to it"
Sometimes it mystifies me why a group of people will all go out and get ID's so that they can write exactly one negative review of a film. Constantine seems to have managed to outrage both the Hellblazer comic book crowd and the and the 'this is blasphemous' club. After all, Constantine is intended as light entertainment, not scripture or imitation. So let's just take a look at the film in and of itself for a moment. After all, if a film arouses this much antipathy there must be something to it.In John Constantine's (Keanu Reeves) world evil and good are locked in the age old struggle, but there are rules that the two sides play by. The big rule is that true demons and angels cannot cross over to this plane, although there are plenty of what Constantine refers to as 'half-breeds' to make up the difference. Constantine is something of an enforcer. If demons get to out of line, his job is to whomp on them and send them back to hell. How did he get the job? It seems that when psychics commit suicide they run the risk of being both damned and restored to a job with no opportunities for advancement. To make matters worse, John is dying for the second time - from lung cancer.Something is wronger than usual - trash scavengers have uncovered the spear of Longinus, there is unrest among the minions, and a woman commits suicide who never should have. The woman's sister, Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) is a detective determined to understand how the tragedy could happen. Before long Dodson and Constantine are working together and they find themselves faced with not just a few souls out of place, but a rebellion in hell that threatens to drop all humanity into the end of days.Reeves creates a Constantine who is more taciturn than the Hellblazer character, but whose grit and brusqueness still make him an interesting figure. Weisz has more script and she fulfills her part as a foil for Constanine beautifully, This is a film which is decidedly un-sexy, regardless of the attractiveness of the leads. The bit characters - half-angel Gabriel (played by Tilda Swinton who captures the angel's ambiguous sexuality perfectly), half-demon Balthazar (Gavin Rossdale), Midnote (Djimon Hounsou), and Beeman (Max Baker) - all have a crisp, comic book reality. And Peter Stormare does an outstanding job as Satan twisted in a whole new fashion.Director Francis Lawrence does a notable job of capturing the feel of comic book illustration and framing within the parameters of film. The film is carefully balanced between comic book sarcasm, humor, and the horrible seriousness of the underlying theme. Putting everyone's 'issues' aside (and everyone seems to have one issue or another about Constantine) this is lightweight but well constructed piece of filmic fiction.