The Spear of Destiny, that apparently killed Jesus, had been lost since World War II, until it was found one day by a scavenger in Mexico, wrapped up nicely a Nazi flag. The man feels a sudden change in himself and crosses the road, only be fatalised in a car crash. Somehow returning from the dead almost instanteously, he continues his journey bringing death wherever he goes.

Isabel (Racel Weisz) is the twin sister of Angela, and has commited suicide although Angela does not believe this. Having dreamt about her death, and being a twin, something just doesn’t feel right about her death, and by chance comes across Constantine (Keanu Reeves), who both become involved in finding out the truth about her death and how it links to a greater darkness that is approaching.

Keanu Reeves dons his obligatory black pants, white shirt and black tie for another dinner, except this one has demons instead of crazy robots who talk a lot of Zen in binary. playing Constantine, he has taken it upon himself to rid the world of demons that try to end his world. His gift, or curse, is the ability to see things that normal humans cannot see – namely creatures from hell and heaven. Respecting the rules of the game, however, means he can only interevene if there is a shift in the balance of power, or if someone breaks the rules.

Constantine is an able if predictable romp through the supernatural repetition of heaven vs hell, heaven and hell, and heaven and hell playing with humanity. The humans are supposedly pawns in a game being played by God and the Devil in a bid to see what happens. There are demons, there are spirits and people who dry in mysterious ways.

It’s never creepy for more than a few minutes, however, but it doe keep the entertainment going, even if it’s rather passive. There’s action aplenty, and large special effects but it’s not extravagant and feels rather subdued in fact. If you’re expecting big effects, huge demons and such you’re going to be pretty disappointed. What Constantine does with its effects it does well, and it keeps one foot in reality for this reason, keeping the audience glued to the idea that it could be real, even if it’s just an illussion.

Weisz is pretty poor in both roles, and becomes more of an annoyance than anything else, partly because the script has been written in such a way to treat her as such. She’s the damsel in distress, and Reeves will save here. Have been here before? What I’d like to see is a real role reversal, rather than an unbalanced one, or at least give female leads an equal footing. Western films seem so intent on keeping women as damsel’s in their action films, and if they are the leads, they’re tarted up with big chests and skimppy clothing. I’m not asking for a book worm to be the lead – although having said that, why not? It would be different.

Reeves’s character, and his acting methodlogy of look-like-plank-act-like-plank works wonders here and is aptly suited. Not having to display more than one expression is perhaps beneficial here, as you probably wouldn’t want to be rolling around laughing at his attempts to show concern while he’s trying to fend of CGi demons. There’s little in the way of chemistry between the two leads, indeed, I’m not even sure Weisz is suited for the role.

Gavin Rossdale, from the band Bush, as Balthazar was quite amusing, camping it up as does Tilda Swinton as Gabriel. Both provide some decent light relief, as well as some interesting characters. It’s not enough to save the film, or to rank it anything above average since average is precisely what it is. There are many things it does pretty well, such as the atmosphere, the pace and the direction. What let’s it down is bad dialogue, poor scripting, some pretty uninteresting acting and a lack of charisma. It’s also very much by the numbers.

There were big expectations from Constantine, it being another comic to film adaptation in an industry devoid of original ideas. The questions that raised are when will this stupidity stop and original film making return, and of course how the heck do you turn a comic series in to a coupleof hours entertainment, without boring people to death and without offending fans?
Whether they succeeded with the latter, I can’t say, but I’m not sure if it succeeds with the former. You won’t fall asleep, but you’ll feel you could be watching something substantially better and more entertaining.

Verdict: Could be worse, but could be a lot better. If you have nothing else to watch, it’s worth a cheap rent