I haven’t seen the movie “Constantine” because of the relatively unenthusiastic reviews, but in looking at some of the Constantine graphic novels the other day I can’t imagine anyone less suited to be played by an actor like Keanu Reeves. If anything his blank slate, tabla rosa like acting style seems the antithesis of the comic book Constantine’s sharp as a tack, tricky, tired, knowing, so English it makes your teeth hurt, world weary attitude. If anything he seems the anti-Constantine.
Two questions -
How in the world was such a casting decision made?
Did he do a good job in the movie? Is it worth seeing?
If you aren’t married to the idea of the movie Constantine being like the comic Constantine, he did an OK job (for Keanu), in an OK movie. Worth catching on cable if you get the movie channels, maybe a rental if there’s nothing better and you really feel like seeing a flick.
It’s a horrid adaptation, but a rather enjoyable movie on its own merits.
Forget Keanu as Constanine, for a moment, that’s the least of the dissimilarities. It was Chaz that struck me, more than John.
Movie Chaz never once complains about John getting him into trouble. He CONSTANTLY complains that John won’t let him get into ENOUGH trouble - that he won’t let him help.
I thought the movie was pretty good. Keanu wasn’t a gigantic highlight, but I thought he was effective and appropriate. And there are some pretty good parts to the flick. It’s appropriately noirish and actually pretty twisted and frightening.
I haven’t read the comic book so I can’t speak to it’s accuracy. I felt the movie was pretty good. Not perfect by any means, but pretty good.
As for Reeves, he did okay. Action movies are those kind of films where you can get away with having people like Reeves star in it. A great actor helps a lot, but decent one will usally be good enough.
As a fan of Hellblazer/Constantine, I wasn’t a fan of Reeves’ casting. They could have gone with any number of more appropriate actors: Daniel Craig, James Marsters, Paul Bettany, Gary Oldman, Ewan McGregor, or if they absolutely HAD to go with someone who didn’t speak with a British accent, Kiefer Sutherland. Any of them would have been much better.
But all in all, Constantine was not a bad movie. The first act is actually GREAT at setting that horror-noir mood, and it rolls along pretty well until the third act, where I think they just lost it, and tried too hard to make a video game-style action movie out of things. I understand Reeves is a comic book fan himself, read the Hellblazer trade paperbacks in preparation, and really tried his hardest in the role. It shows – I preferred his performance here to his role as Neo in the Matrix movies, and there was nothing to compare him to in those, for what it’s worth.
I am not familiar with the graphic novels, so I had no preconcieved images going in. I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was fun enough and I didn’t regret renting it.