Rating (2.5 out of 5)

This movie popped up on Netflix.  This is another movie I have watched before but took the opportunity to watch again.  While there are pieces of this film I really like, as a whole this just another comic book miss/mess.

Plot:  John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) fights off demons in order to earn his way into heaven.  John has cancer and is dying soon.  He notices demon soldiers are making their way across into our world, and he sets off to fight them.  In doing so he crosses path’s with Angela Dobson (Rachel Weisz) whose sister recently committed suicide.  Angela is the key to finding the mystery and saving the humanity.

What I Liked:  When Constantine battled the demon in the little girl to start the movie it seemed the movie was going to be a lot of fun and the movie was headed in the right direction.   Using the mirror to pull the creature out and how the mirror was too large for the window.  When the movie stuck to the supernatural, it was fun.

There were other scenes like this where Constantine had to go through certain events to find more information.  There was the time when he had his feet in a bucket of water and looked deeply into a cats eyes.  Or when he had to go and request the “Chair” and he had to be electrocuted.  That was all really neat.

Guest appearances by Peter Stormare as Satan, all dressed in white, and Tilda Swinton as the angel Gabriel and her huge wings were nice parts.

What I Didn’t Like:  The movie wasn’t straight forward enough for me.  The plot was something for a season of Supernatural.  We had this person over here, then this agreement over here.  Aagh, all I needed next was my Dune dictionary (yes for Dune they handed out a pamphlet with the terminology).   Had they focused on just one aspect of the story and made it a little clearer I would have enjoyed it more.

Their version of hell sucked and the effects looked terrible.  I felt like this took away from the film.  My big learning from Jaws was you don’t always have to show something to fear it.  Felt as a whole the effects were a bit of a let down.

Didn’t feel the chemistry between any people existed.  None between John and his mentee Chas (Shia LeBeouf).  Really didn’t feel it between John and Angela.  I get John is loaner and fighting out there on his own, but some connection would have been good.

Conclusion:  I really like the John Constantine comic book character and think he has a lot to offer, but Constantine becomes a hodge podge of events.