by Bartlett Meeks

Created on: December 19, 2008

Lord, when, oh when, will Keanu Reeves shut up and just produce? He has been attached with some truly great ideas and adaptations. Jonny Mnemonic, A Scanner Darkly, and Constantine were all great in their original forms and the idea of seeing these on the big screen was exciting. The Matrix was a great idea, and reinvigorated the science fiction genera. I have little doubt that it was Reeve's Hollywood pull that got these movies made, or at least made them as popular as they were.

But then he had to go and act in them. Granted, his role in Jonny Mnemonic worked I thought, but that was only because the character was supposed to be cold and unemotional. I want to like him as an actor. I'm on his side. He's done some good work- Bill & Ted, Point Break, My Own Private Idaho, Little Buddha, I even liked him in Devil's Advocate. But for the most part I would rather he just not act. This brings me to Constantine.

Constantine, based on the long running comic book Hellblazer, was a good idea. I've wanted to see a large screen adaptation of John Constantine since he came onto the scene during his run on Swamp Thing back in 1985. Cross a hardboiled noir private detective with Crowley and throw in a bit of Jonny Rotten and you have John Constantine. Add a cast of modern day wizards, elementals, angels, devils, and plain old folk being bastards and you have a great place to tell stories. I wish someone had told the folk who made the movie this.

Constantine, in the books, is a Londoner. In the movie they transplant him to Los Angeles. While this may seem a minor cosmetic change, it is a change that resonates. London onscreen has a different look and feel than Los Angeles does. London is claustrophobic, historical, uptight, and gritty. L.A. is shallow, sprawling, and sunlit. Moving Constantine to L.A. is like moving the Dukes of Hazzard to Minnesota. Sure you can do it, but you loose something.

The plot of the movie was a mishmash of storylines from the books, including "Dangerous Habits", one of the best storylines Constantine has ever seen. Unfortunately what makes the graphic novel compelling is the richness and depth of the character and his past. Not the best plot for a movie.

Movies are by nature short stories, and with that in mind it is baffling why comic books have had such success as movies. Characters and origins have to be chopped or manipulated to fit into this new medium. The true craft of making a literary character a movie character is to decide what needs to stay and what needs to change, or go entirely. With Constantine too much was lost, and what stayed was only the facile portions of the character. It was not the special effects or even the story that made this a poor movie; it was the lack of respect for the character.

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