Constantine, the directorial debut of Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, most of The Hunger Games series), stars Keanu Reeves as John Constantine. It is based on the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer graphic novels. Right out of the box, things don’t start so hot for Constantine. He is an exorcist who can see the true visage of half-angels and half-demons while on the Earthly plane. He also is condemned to Hell when he dies because of a suicide attempt when he was a teenager. And he has terminal lung cancer.
Buy Constantine 4K UHDAdded to these pains is the fact that Constantine is sought out by a policewoman, Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz), who is suspicious of her twin sister’s supposed suicide. A devout Catholic (and every character in the film appears to be a devout Catholic), her suicide means that she has gone to Hell where she will be torn to bits for eternity. Added to this is the fact that the spear point that was used to kill Jesus has been found, and demons want to use the relic to allow them to have free reign on Earth.
Reeves is excellent as Constantine. He plays it with the weight of the world on his shoulders. But the standouts here are Shia LaBeouf as Constantine’s apprentice and Peter Stormare as Lucifer. Unfortunately, LaBeouf disappears for large swaths of the movie to facilitate plot, but when he is around, he is charming and funny and stalwart. Stormare chose to play Lucifer without the horns, without the cloven hooves. His eyes are red-rimmed, and his feet are oily, but Stormare uses his talent to fill his scenes with a dramatic gusto that is a wonder to behold. He is scary and intelligent and morosely funny.
Constantine carries a golden cross that has been modified into a shotgun. That’s how fun this movie is. There is a short bonus scene at the very tippy end of the credits. With well over an hour and a half of bonus features, including five mini-docs over 15 minutes long each, Constantine on 4K UHD is the ultimate collector’s package. This is one of the great adaptations of comic books to film and highly recommended.
Bonus Features:
- Commentary with Director Francis Lawrence and Producer Akiva Goldsman
- Commentary with Writers Kevin Brodbin and Frank A. Cappello
- Two Decades of Damnation – Discusses 20 years of Constantine
- Channeling Constantine – Focuses on the main character
- Conjuring Constantine – Discussing the source material
- Director’s Confessional – The director’s viewpoint
- Collision with Evil – Regards the opening of the film
- Holy Relics – Describes the “holy” weapons used in the film
- Shotgun Shootout – Covers the basics of combat and stunts
- Hellscape – On creating Hell
- Visualizing Vermin – Discusses the “bugs” featured throughout the film
- Warrior Wings – Regarding the design aspects of angel wings
- Unholy Abduction – Describes a crucial scene involving Rachel Weisz
- Demon Face – Regarding turning Gavin Rossdale into a demon
- Constantine’s Cosmology – Discussion of the myths Constantine is based on
- Foresight: The Power of Pre-Visualization – How the crew pre-visualized certain scenes
- A Writer’s Vision – Animatic demonstrating special effects
- Deleted Scenes – Deleted scenes and an alternate ending
