Product: Constantine [Blu-ray] (2012)
Rating: 4.0
Demonic Drama
Getting there may be hell, but end is worth bumpy tripA lot of movies suffer from ending dysfunction.They start out great, build toward a climax, then phhhhtttt. They fizzle out in the third act, fumble the finale and are never quite sure how to wrap things up.Not "Constantine."The duel-with-the-devil drama starring Keanu Reeves adopts the opposite formula. Most of the interesting moments are stockpiled for the last 20 minutes. Minor characters appear to deliver a punch, and the film finally takes off.This is good.And bad. It means you have to slog through the often-sluggish first two-thirds to reach the payoff. Director Francis Lawrence, known for music videos, took on quite a challenge for his feature film debut. It's based on the "Hellblazer" series of graphic novels about John Constantine, a kind of exorcist detective demon-fighter.There are powerful jolt-moments of creepy-looking demon dudes, followed by calm moments, followed by more jolts. This is what you might call the film's rhythm. But when these moments are so telegraphed, the jolts lose their luster.The premise, however, is a real corker.The chain-smoking Constantine has the ability to see half-breeds (agents of good or evil who are here to mess with mankind), and he's adept at sending the bad ones to hell. The problem is: His lungs are shot, and he doesn't have long to live. He'd rather not take the down escalator and be reunited with the scum he sent to the underworld. So he's working on making it to heaven.But first he needs to help Angela (Rachel Weisz), a police detective trying to solve her twin sister's mysterious death, and steer clear of Satan's evil emissary, Balthazar (Gavin Rossdale). Along the way, he encounters the spear of destiny, secret Bible passages and a vintage electric chair.It helps that Constantine can drop in on hell, a fury-filled fiery wasteland. (Note to Hollywood: Shouldn't hell look a lot like an office, with cubicles, ringing phones, and co-workers clamoring to line up for somebody's birthday cake? Now that's scary!)He tries to explain to Angela that life is really just a grand wager between God and Satan. She doesn't buy it, preferring to trust in God's plan. "God's a kid with an ant farm," spews Constantine. "He's not planning anything."If you've seen the trailer or commercials, you know Warner Bros. is trying to promote "Constantine" as a kind of effects-laden "Matrix 4." Considering how much people loathed the third "Matrix," that's not the most brilliant marketing strategy.Reeves has that whole fearless-stoicism thing nailed. But the two most memorable cast members are Tilda Swinton and Peter Stormare.Swinton plays a gender-bending Gabriel, God's angel-agent on Earth. Stormare delivers a terrific Lucifer - powerful, threatening and campy-funny.Gabriel and Lucifer are the strength of a climax that includes basically everything: Good vs. evil, God vs. the devil, heaven vs. hell, fate vs. self-determination, sacrifice vs. selfishness, fear vs. love, and, in a nod to the current geopolitical landscape, the question of just who has the right to claim ownership of the Bible and kill "in the name of God."My addled brain couldn't process all that. Maybe in the sequel.