In 2005, Warner Bros adapted the Hellblazer comic by Alan Moore and Stephen R. Bissette, bringing their demon-hunting anti-hero, John Constantine, to the big screen. With Keanu Reeves chosen to play the lead, hopes were high that this would be another significant franchise for the star following his success in The Matrix trilogy. While the film did decent box office, it was not a big enough hit to score a sequel. Still, in the seventeen years following its release, a pretty significant cult has grown around the film, with Reeves himself and director Francis Lawrence saying they would be open to revisiting the character. In this episode of DC Revisited, we explore why Constantine is such a perennially underrated DC flick.
Of course, audiences, particularly comic-book fans, weren’t as enthusiastic when the movie came out. Reeves, being an American with black hair, wasn’t anyone’s idea of who John Constantine should be. The character was written as English with blond hair, with many saying a young Sting would have been ideal in the part. Yet, people came around over the years, appreciating the attitude and humor he brought to the role. Director Francis Lawrence also did a great job mixing the horror and action genres and assembled one hell (pun intended) of a cast, with Tilda Swinton as the Archangel Gabriel and Peter Stormare as Lucifer particularly memorable. And let’s not forget Rachel Weisz in a dual role, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, a young Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Hounsou and, in a part that mostly ended up on the cutting room floor, Michelle Monaghan. Join us on this episode of DC Revisited, written, narrated and edited by Tyler Nichols as we re-examine this terrifically entertaining flick
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