Constantine
                                                                                                                 
Director: Francis Lawrence
Year: 2005
Rating: 7.0
Keanu Reeves shows a sample of what he would do later as John Wick but in this case, he is killing demons, not assassins. He is John Constantine, a man who committed suicide but came back with visons and powers, who is determined to make up for his sin and not go to hell by keeping the balance and fighting demonic forces. That sounds like the basis for a graphic novel and that is exactly what it was. For a person like myself who is not at all religious and not a believer in what I don't know, films like this always give me the chills. They put doubts in my mind. Maybe there is more than we see. Beyond our powers and only seen by a few. Heaven and Hell and judgment day.  True evil out there beyond the evil in men. We all share in that. So, this got to me until it turned ridiculous in a grand bang finale when Gabriel and Lucifer all show up and God is watching. There is a little Rosemary's Baby mixed in with supernatural action and bugs - lots of bugs - in this film. For a movie of this nature, they get some terrific acting from Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Pruit Taylor Vince, Shia LaBeouf, Max Baker and Djimon Hounsou. And Reeves is well . . . John Wick.

 

Constantine is called by Father Hennessy (Vince) an alcoholic ex-priest to evict a demon out of a young woman. He does by capturing it in a mirror but is perplexed by a demon from Hell coming over. There are rules like there are in John Wick (also a bar of neutrality where you can drink in peace). You can't cross over. It upsets the balance. What he doesn't know is that the Spear of Destiny - missing since the end of WW II - has been found and the fate of the world is in the hands of whoever holds it. The Spear of Destiny you might ask if you are not particularly religious. In the Christian religion, it is a real thing. The spear that killed Jesus while he was on the cross. His blood is still on it.

 

A woman comes to him and asks him to help prove that her twin sister did not commit suicide by jumping - even though video shows she did.  Then the demons show up. Not for me as he tells her, for you. She is Angela (Weisz) and unknowingly has been selected to bring the son of the devil into this world. Not something you want on your resume. A lot of freaky stuff takes place - an attack by an insect man, his friends being murdered in horrible ways and Constantine trying to save the world. Though this runs two-hours, it moves along at the speed of light - often leaving me behind but very much enjoying it. The CGI and gritty dark designs add a lot of flavor to the film. There has been talk of a sequel with Keanu amenable to one. He needs another franchise. The director Francis Lawrence was another music video to feature films evolution - a few of the Hunger Games and Red Sparrow to his credit.

 

Constantine: City of Demons (2018) – 6.0

 


Animation. I think this animation is much closer to the original Constantine of the graphic novels. He is an Englishman living in London for one thing, blonde, likes his pint and is a bit of a shit. It is very violent with blood splattered walls and there is one sexual encounter with something not quite defined. They sure didn't make cartoons like this when I was growing up. An old friend of Constantine comes to him for help - my daughter is in a coma. I think there are dark arts at play. Constantine realizes that her soul has been stolen and he has to go to Los Angeles to get it back. The animation is serviceable enough. 90-minutes.

 
Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

 



A 30-minute animated episode of Constantine. I have no idea how this fits into the timeline, but it begins in an apocalyptic future in which most of mankind has been killed off. Constantine convinces Flash to create a hole for Constantine to go back into the past and change everything so this never happens. But by doing so, he broke the rules of the Universe and is sentenced to the House of Mystery in which his friends and wife are demons who kill him time after time after time for eternity. Cool.