‘What if I told you that God and the devil made a wager…’
A film in which Keanu Reeves plays a demon hunter should not have too much plot. I’m not saying that films can’t be ambitious in terms of plotting but I am saying this film shouldn’t be ambitious in terms of plotting. The best moments in Constantine are also the dumbest…
Let’s not worry too much about the plot then, aye. The tip of the spear that pierced Jesus Christ acts as the Maguffin. Reeves is John Constantine, a moody and pleasingly childish demon hunter, who aims to come off as broody but actually ends up being more like a sulky teenager. Rachel Weisz is there too looking for her dead sister. Shia LaBeouf auditions for his future role as Indiana Jones’ sidekick by playing Constantine’s sidekick. Perhaps most pleasingly of all, this film features the archangel Gabriel and the murderous demon Balthazar and so, of course, those roles are respectively filled by Tilda Swinton and Gavin Rossdale from Bush. He provides some of the best nonsense of all.
While Constantine is tonally all over the place, it actually looks great. Has CGI got worse since 2005? It feels unlikely but I enjoyed the effects here a lot more than most of the shit you encounter in a Marvel movie (or any movie from The Conjuring universe for that matter to evoke something that is tonally a little closer to Constantine). Director Francis Lawrence (who would go on to helm the Hunger Games franchise) clearly has an eye for aesthetics and Constantine provides the schlock of The Devil’s Advocate through the weird nu-metal filter of 2005. It’s all good stuff.
I’m not sure I could call Constantine a good film but it’s definitely an entertaining one and again, when you’re making a film where Keanu Reeves plays a demon hunter being entertained is pretty much the only thing that matters.
