Product: Constantine [Blu-ray] (2012)
Rating: 4.0
Constantine
At this point in time there really is no reason to point fingers. Comic book based movies are now the trend and have been for quite some time. Whether it's the superheroes (Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc.) or the grittier, more pissed of 'heroes' (The Punisher, Spawn, etc.), comic book heroes are popping up all over the bigscreen everywhere.Maybe it was because of this, or maybe it was because of Keanu Reeves' previous special effect box office smashes (cough cough The Matrix films cough cough), but they seem to have drug up yet another gritty badass from the depths of the underworld and slapped him onto the bigscreen., and his name is Constantine.Just a little background on our 'hero': John Constantine is going to Hell and there's no way around it. You see he was given, or cursed, with the power to see demons, angels and things of the like. When he was a teenager, Constantine committed suicide, which ensures his place in Hell. However, it wasn't his time to go so now he's stuck on earth again. Constantine now spends his better days fighting off demons who interfere with human existance and send them back to Hell. Oh yeah, he's also dying of lung cancer. With this reputation, Constantine is feared by the inhabitants of Hell and, needless to say, hated aswell.As Constantine tries to exterminate more demons to gain passasgeway into Heaven, he because increasingly pissed off that no matter how hard he tries it just won't ever happen. As this continues on, Constantine is drawn into the unlikely suicide of detective Angela Dodson's twin sister, Isabel. Seeing as how there's much more to this story than just a suicide, Constantine agrees to help Angela in her quest.Now Reeves has played against the Devil before (The Devil's Advocate) and has applied some serious damage in special effect motion before (The Matrix films), but there's something about his portrayal of the angry and unwired man of solitude that that earns Reeves a head nod here. Yeah we know he can look cool in slow motion, but he puts a little something behind the his character here that gives him a little shove out of the one dimensional action character role.Everyone else is decent but none are quite as good as Reeves. As far as the actual movie goes, there's a certain potential in the first scene with Constantine that doesn't seem to be found anywhere else. The first scene, consisting of an exorcism, is good and even downright creepy. After this scene, though, the movie moves in a much slower pace. Perhaps the expectations after the first scene not being met were what caused the evident slow down.The rest of the movie is your give or take action flick. Humorous lines and fun to watch fights/gunfights make this movie interesting. Also, the detective angle to find out the bigger pictures also wraps the viewer in a web of curiosity that makes the movie so much more interesting.Knowing the potential the movie had brought it down some, but seeing it pass so many other comic book movies also brought it up. Nothing spectacular here and nothing that will impact you in a deep, sensitive kind of way. In fact, it's quite probable that Constantine will kind of drift off after its DVD release. Either way, it still stands as an entertaining view and I give it a 7 out of 10 (or 4 stars).