Product: Constantine [Blu-ray] (2012)
Rating: 1.0
uhm...
I've been reading through the other reviews, trying to see if it was just me. One of my friends loved it; the other just wasn't impressed. Neither had read any of the comics. Me? I loved the comic book. I stopped seeing movies based on comic books after being greatly disappointed by The Hulk. But...I really, really like Hellblazer. So I let myself be suckered into thinking that maybe this time would different. Truly, looking back on it, I'm not certain what I was thinking. The problem is that when writers are given a comic book format to develop a story and the characters therein, they have one issue a month (sometimes more), twelve times a year to develop their characters. If a comic has only been out for a year, that's not much to live up to. In the case of Hellblazer...this is a comic that's been out since the late eighties. 1988, specifically. The movie is trying to encapsulate fifteen years of character and plot development. And do it in an hour and a half. With special effects. I seriously doubted their choice of Keanu Reeves to play the part; he has the [almost, but not quite] right look, but I was a little afraid to hear him try to pull off an English accent. Silly me. I'm not certain what would have been worse: listening to Mr. Reeves trying to affect an English accent, or the transformation of John Constantine into an America character. The very idea of either concept grates on my nerves. In the long run, I guess the Americanization of John Constantine was the lesser of the two evils, but I *personally* believe that if the movie maker cannot be true to the story or the characters, the attempt should be abandoned. I should have held true to my belief that I should not go see movies based on comics. I didn't and I was very disappointed. Bottom line: if you haven't read the books, and you want to see a cool movie with good effects and an unchallenging story, see Constantine. Enjoy. But please, don't tell me how great it was. I'll only hide behind my book and ignore you. If you've read the comics, and you like the comics, I don't think that you'll really enjoy this. I didn't.