|
|
| Saturday, April 25, 2009 02:04 AM |
| On the Viewer - Constantine |
 by Fëanor |
I'd seen bits of Constantine on TV many times, but never the whole thing - until tonight! I Twittered my reactions, so I'll just recopy them here, and add a few extra notes.
Constantine is pretty nonsensical, but it's got great ideas and visuals, it's a ton of fun, and Tilda Swinton is fantastic as Gabriel.
Actually, besides Keanu Reeves as Constantine, casting is brilliant. Gavin Rossdale as a demon and Peter Stormare as Satan!
And the ending is just killer.
Keanu Reeves is a terrible choice to play the comic book version of Constantine, because the comic book version of Constantine is a witty, surly Brit. But what you pretty much have to accept from the beginning is that this is not the comic book version of Constantine. This is a separate story entirely and has to be approached as such. Once you accept that, you can enjoy it.
And like I said, the ending is just fantastic. Not the very ending; I could do without Constantine's final bit of narration, and I think I would have preferred it if he'd whipped out a cigarette rather than a piece of gum. But the climactic sequence preceding that, featuring Gabriel trying to act as midwife at the birth of the Anti-Christ; Satan coming to Earth personally to take Constantine's soul; Constantine sacrificing himself to save someone else and gaining access to heaven; and Satan subsequently saving his life so he'd have another chance to damn himself - that stuff is all just brilliant. Tilda Swinton I think is just an amazing actress and she really brings something special to the film in her role as Gabriel. And as I said, I just love Rossdale looking all slick as a stylish demon, and Stormare creeping it up as Satan.
To put it simply, the movie is much better than it has any right to be. Bravo! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
