John Constantine

Reeves plays devil's advocate John ConstantineMovie Habit: Review of Constantine (2005), ***

Movie Habit logo
...
Constantine is a rare creation, a comic book-based movie that actually raises some philosophical questions worth thinking about.

Vertigo

Constantine is a man desperately searching for redemptionConstantine is a man desperately searching for redemption

John Constantine (Keanu Reeves, The Devil,s Advocate) has a unique story to tell.
...
Now a chain-smoking investigator of the supernatural, Constantine is a man desperately searching for redemption and trying to earn his way back into God,s good graces before either Satan or his smoking habit prove to be his undoing.

It,s an interesting storyline, one that provides the perfect backdrop to raise lots of questions on spirituality and faith, as well as serving up some hot side orders of social commentary.

Irony abounds in Constantine,s City of Angels.Across the street, there,s a billboard mocking those famous celebrity milk advertisements.The billboard taunts Constantine with the eternal question: Got faith?Plus there are those omnipresent warnings about the health risks caused by smoking cigarettes.

In Constantine,s world, heaven is a bureaucracy.Based on the fact that he hasn,t prayed enough, gone to church enough, or donated enough, he,s pretty sure he,s ineligible for admittance.

As if Constantine,s life isn,t interesting or conflicted enough, the tensions get turned up a notch when he meets Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz, The Mummy), a police woman whose troubled twin sister committed suicide - or was possibly murdered.

Until the End of the World

Based on the DC/Vertigo Hellblazer comics, Constantine may not be faithful enough to its source material for the true believers, but it hits enough of the right marks to stand on its own for those less familiar with its origins.

Writing off Constantine as simply another comic book movie is to sell it short, much like writing off Hellblazer as just another comic book overlooks its more dramatic ambitions.

Even so, this isn,t perfect cinema.Some of the special effects are cheesy and Constantine will no doubt fall short of the more widespread appeal of the Matrix series.
...
But, this is a movie full of ideas and that is where Constantine finds its greatest strength.
...
The lives of Constantine, Angela, Gabriel, and Satan himself (Peter Stormare, Minority Report) intertwine in an epic that serves as part cautionary tale, part religious allegory, part mystery, and part horror adventure.
...
Those looking for a simple, mindless escape can be find it in Constantine,s campier horror moments and the pulpy joy of a chain-smoking protagonist Hell-bent on avoiding Hell.