Constantine

B

Some stuff that I'm writing in the this review would be because of the initial impression Mr James Berandinelli gave me upon reading his review more than a year ago, which was that this movie is as bad as Underworld (which was excruciating for me). But I probably was a different person when I watched Underworld, and I watched Underworld in the cinema, while Constantine just minutes ago on DVD.

The only thing that I can claim about my experience watching Constantine - every other factors regardless - is that I totally enjoyed it. I think it's one of the most entertaining movies I've ever watched, and that I don't think watching it in the cinema, or whatever, would have changed my opinion.

John Contantine (Keanu Reeves) is fighting his last battle with lung cancer - the cause of which is smoking 30 cigarettes a day since he was 15. He's going to hell, however, because he tried to commit suicide when he was a teenager. So now he's a demon hunter, buying his escape from eternal damnation by - as afore mentioned - killing demons. That's when our fun begins.

Angella (Rachel Weisz) is convinced that her twin sister was murdered while in fact her twin sister jumped down from the roof of a mental hospital. Turned down by the church to allow for Catholic burial, she seeked help in John Constantine. At the same time, the Spear of Destiny - the one that stabbed the Christ - is found in Mexico. All these events would inevitably lead to the rising of the son of Satan.

From what I've said so far, you'd probably figure out that much of Constantine is a bunch of crap. Inspite of the religious undercurrent, Contantine is not The Exorcist. As such, it is not thought provoking. I'm not dying to watch Constantine again, because it really doesn't offer much in 2nd viewings. But what it lacks in intelligence, it makes up for in everything else.

This is one visually sumptiour movie. The special effects are to-die-for, their as good as it gets. The plot may be thin, but director Francis Lawrence creates a detailed and colourful world of the comically occult and fascinating. So while the overall impression is that the movie is crap, you can tell that much thought has been given into this piece of art inspite of the script.

That's how I felt throughout most of the movie anyway, until 20 minutes til the end. Then I saw a misstep. But the movie recovered itself admireably 10 minutes later. But 1 second before it finishes, it again made another misstep, a minor one, I might say, but still rather important nonetheless. If you haven't watched the movie, you won't know what I mean. But that's how it is with Constantine. To me it's a fine movie with some give and takes. But it's better than alot of movies I've watched so far (Aeon Flux comes to mind). And I'm looking forward to Constantine2.
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