My reaction to this movie was pretty solid as I left in the theater. No it wasn't a thumbs up, and no, it wasn't a thumbs down. The thumb was planted firmly in the middle. That's a shame too, as I had been looking forward to this. The trailers looked good, and it seemed to be a role that was right up Keanu Reeve's ally. The question is what went wrong? But before we can get into that we must first give some examination to what was put up on the screen.
The driving idea behind the film is that John Constantine is essentially a soldier in the war between heaven and hell. He is able to see through the world that has been pulled over our eyes, fighting the demons of a past and for an uncertain future. This particular chapter involves the Constantine helping out a young woman detective who is investigating the apparent suicide of her twin sister. This leads to a discovery of a loophole in the battle rules between God and Lucifer that would allow Lucifer's son to cross over onto our plane of existence, thus upsetting the balance in favor of the dark forces of Hell. Actually, I think it is a bit more convoluted than that, but that is the general idea.
It is based on the DC/Vertigo comic book Hellblazer, with which I am completely unfamiliar with, save that I have heard of it before and seen the title on the shelf, but have never picked up. From what I have learned of late, it is a dark tale of the battle between good and evil and the line that Constantine treads while attempting to "purchase" his way into heaven in exchange for a deed that has essentially cut him off. That is all I knew going in. The concept is not entirely new, but the seed is there to make a compelling film, that could be paired up with the ability to create incredible visuals.
There are some interesting casting choices to fill the two leads. To play our lead role we have Keanu Reeves as John Constantine, whose wooden acting style would seem to be a perfect fit for our loner hero. Sadly it just seems like a variation on Neo. I guess the story doesn't help with all the religious overtones and plot mumbo jumbo. I admit that, most of the time, I like Reeves. He puts himself out there in many different roles, and at least tries. This time around, he seems to be playing it safe here or he hasn't been able to completely come out of the Neo character yet. On the other side we have Rachel Weisz, who is probably best known for her role in the two Mummy films. She plays two roles here, Angela and Isabel Dodson. Angela is a detective whose twin sister committed suicide, although she has serious doubts as to the real circumstances. She is a very good actress, but seems somehow flat here, I can't quite put my finger on the problem, but the performance just seems to be off.
On the other side of the acting coin, the supporting performances were fantastic and helped to save the non visual effects portion of the film. First is Gavin Rossdale, lead singer for the band Bush (are they still together?) and husband to Gwen Stefani. He plays Balthazar are rather smug "half-breed" demon who comes across as a very slimy person. Djimon Hounsou is also here playing Midnite, a barkeep who sets up neutral ground for the two sides, I have always enjoyed his performances. This brings us to the two brightest spots on the acting landscape of Constantine, Tilda Swinton as Gabriel and Pete Stormare as Satan. Swinton gives us this bizarrely androgynous half-breed angel who seems to be putting forth their own agenda in the face of what really needs to be done. It is a wonderful performance, that fits in with the tone of the film. Peter Stormare, on the other hand, makes his presence known towards the end of the film and brings a darkly comic sensibility, combined with some great delivery to just chew the scenery up, I wish he had a more pervasive presence throughout the film.
In the end, the real winner in terms of supporting this movie, is the art direction. The look of this film is great, it is the best thing going for it. Right from the opening of the film, the appearance of the studio logos and their quick hellish disintegration sets the tone. There are a lot of computer generated effects that give us visions of hell and the revelation of the demonic and angelic forces around us. It is quite possibly the best looking film so far this year.
The issues that I have are that it has this pervasive been there, done that feel to it. The story is not terribly original. The concept has been done in the past, what they needed to do was add some spice to it, give it a spin all it's own. The seeds for that were there, but it is as if they decided to play it safe and bank the success off of it's star. So in the end good effects plus excellent art direction plus entertaining supporting cast minus flat leads minus original story minus mediocre script equals middle of the road film guaranteed of making some good money but being ultimately forgettable.
Bottomline. A good, if not terribly original concept, some good one liners and supporting roles, some good effects and set pieces. But the whole thing is let down by mediocre directing, some shallow lead roles, and a general feeling of been there, done that. You could do worse, but this could have, and should have, been a lot better.
Mild Recommendation.
0 comments:
Post a Comment