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Constantine
Feb. 21st, 2005 05:52 pmYou 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."
