Finally, DC Comics climbs out of the pit of despair and puts forward what is probably the best movie it's had since Batman, 15 years ago. Constantine is based on the comic book Hellblazer from DC Comics' Vertigo line, about a magic-using, chain-smoking, demon-hunting anti-hero from London. For a spinoff from the Swamp Thing comics (first appearance in Saga of the Swamp Thing, #37, 1985*), he has enjoyed a fairly healthy run (next publication: Hellblazer #205, February 2005).

I don't know how loosely the movie is based on the comic, but fans that expect to see the blonde Brit from the comics might be disappointed. Keanu Reeves gives a good, solid performance as John Constantine; and Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, Runaway Jury) does fine opposite him as Angela Dodson - the Catholic skeptic who ends up getting mixed up with him helping him save the world from demons (and more, but I won't give it away here). Constantine has all the darkness and violence you'd expect in a movie of this genre.

Without having spent time with the source material, it's always hard to tell in a movie like this if the writers were creative, or if they just had good source material and adapted it well. Constantine is a compelling film, and I hope this film hails a return to good movie-making for DC Comics. However, I was a bit put off by the theology of the film. While spiritual warfare is always fascinating, the whole "we are pawns used by scheming God" cliche gets old.

*Referenced in Toonopedia: Hellblazer.

© 2005 Jim Manchester