Constantine
Feb. 21st, 2005 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynYou learn the basics, have a hideous experience in a graveyard, they give you a trenchcoat and steal your razor. Like an assembly line, really.
Lut and I went to see Constantine this afternoon. Lut thought it was all right; I found it pretty forgettable. About on par with Chronicles of Riddick. It has some good flashy scenes, and some of the plot twists are mildly interesting, but nothing that really grabbed me as especially well-done or compelling.
If you're familiar with the comic book character, try not to think about it too much and you'll like the film better. The bitterness and chain-smoking is there, but no trenchcoat, no British accent, no blonde hair, and a whole lot more high-powered weaponry than I ever remember seeing John Constantine tote. Lut said, "I don't expect accuracy from a movie adaptation, especially one of a comic book." My response: "Yeah, but this is like going to see a Batman movie and finding out that the title character spends the entire film in a martial arts uniform or something." Rutger Hauer is much too old for the part now, but back in the 80s, he would've made a much better Constantine.
Anyway, if you're not a big fan of action movies, don't bother. If you do like action movies, you'll probably still be happier watching Terminator II again or something.
If I could think of a good quote from the movie, I'd've opened wth it, but unfortunately I can't think of any particularly good lines from the film. So, instead, my opening quote is from Phil Foglio's four issue limited-series run of "Stanley and His Monster", one of many fine comics featuring demons and the occult that are much better than the film I saw this evening. Alas, DC has never collected this series into a graphic novel, so you'd be reduced to trolling Ebay if you wanted to find a set now.
However, still in print are the graphic novel collections of Swamp Thing: The Curse and A Murder of Crows. These collections cover the story arc that first introduced the character of John Constantine, and they're much better than that film I just saw. (They're also fundamentally unrelated to the movie, which is based off the Jamie Delano run of the Hellblazer comic. That came after Alan Moore had created the character of Constantine. The Hellblazer comics were somewhat uneven, from my recollection of them. Some of them were good, some of them not. Moore's entire run of Swamp Thing, however, is quite good and well worth reading.)
I'll leave you with a quote from them, which I've always regarded as one of the defining quotes for Constantine:
"John, you've got blood on your hands."
[Contantine, looking at a cut from broken glass on his palm.]: "Don't worry. I'm sure it won't be the last time."
Lut and I went to see Constantine this afternoon. Lut thought it was all right; I found it pretty forgettable. About on par with Chronicles of Riddick. It has some good flashy scenes, and some of the plot twists are mildly interesting, but nothing that really grabbed me as especially well-done or compelling.
If you're familiar with the comic book character, try not to think about it too much and you'll like the film better. The bitterness and chain-smoking is there, but no trenchcoat, no British accent, no blonde hair, and a whole lot more high-powered weaponry than I ever remember seeing John Constantine tote. Lut said, "I don't expect accuracy from a movie adaptation, especially one of a comic book." My response: "Yeah, but this is like going to see a Batman movie and finding out that the title character spends the entire film in a martial arts uniform or something." Rutger Hauer is much too old for the part now, but back in the 80s, he would've made a much better Constantine.
Anyway, if you're not a big fan of action movies, don't bother. If you do like action movies, you'll probably still be happier watching Terminator II again or something.
If I could think of a good quote from the movie, I'd've opened wth it, but unfortunately I can't think of any particularly good lines from the film. So, instead, my opening quote is from Phil Foglio's four issue limited-series run of "Stanley and His Monster", one of many fine comics featuring demons and the occult that are much better than the film I saw this evening. Alas, DC has never collected this series into a graphic novel, so you'd be reduced to trolling Ebay if you wanted to find a set now.
However, still in print are the graphic novel collections of Swamp Thing: The Curse and A Murder of Crows. These collections cover the story arc that first introduced the character of John Constantine, and they're much better than that film I just saw. (They're also fundamentally unrelated to the movie, which is based off the Jamie Delano run of the Hellblazer comic. That came after Alan Moore had created the character of Constantine. The Hellblazer comics were somewhat uneven, from my recollection of them. Some of them were good, some of them not. Moore's entire run of Swamp Thing, however, is quite good and well worth reading.)
I'll leave you with a quote from them, which I've always regarded as one of the defining quotes for Constantine:
"John, you've got blood on your hands."
[Contantine, looking at a cut from broken glass on his palm.]: "Don't worry. I'm sure it won't be the last time."
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-22 12:07 am (UTC)LOL!!! Between that and my mother's review, I think I'll save the money. At 10 dollars an hour for a babysitter, movies are too expensive to see bad ones.
Oh, and her review was "GOBBITCH. Don't go."
no subject
Date: 2005-03-17 05:26 pm (UTC)Heh. Recognized that quote instantly, does that make me a bit sad? Nah, probably not. Later in that scene:
Proprietess: "Oh my goodness, that poor man is being devoured by squirrels!"
Husband: "Not even his jello mold can save him."
P: "How horrible!"
H: "Yeah. Weird, too."
(together)
"Is John Constantine here?"
Anyway, I've always thought that John shone best as a support, rather than a main character. It allows him to be msyterious, and it really makes you wonder if there isn't something more to this self-professed ordinarly bloke. His own series didn't really know how to treat him most of the time. Jaime Delano started the series, and that ranged from decent to pretty awful (very new age stuff that IMHO didn't belong.) Garth Ennis later took it over, and he was more consistent, but it still lacked the charm he had as a supporting character in Swamp Thing or Sandman, so I dropped it.
Rutger Haur would have made a good Constantine, I agree. So would Sting, for that matter, but that's cheating since Moore created Constantine to look like Sting. ;) In fact, at the end of the "American Gothic" storyline, you can see John paddling on a rowboat with Swampy next to him, the boat has on the back "The Honourable (?) Gordon Sumner." Gordon Sumner is Sting's real name. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-17 11:11 pm (UTC)I'm sure you'd mentioned this stuff to me before, but I'd forgotten about "the Honourable Gordon Sumner". Heeheehee! I think you're right about Constantine. He's better as a supporting character.
Furthermore: welcome to LJ! Nice to see you here! :) Reply to this comment if you would, please, so that I know you've got your own LJ set to forward responses to your email. :)