Here comes another Catholic theology driven thriller about heaven and hell's battles on earth. However, there were a couple of scenes and sequences to make this picture stand out just slightly better than others.

"Constantine" is about John Constantine, a failed suicide victim with special powers, who uses them to flush out demons and renegade angels from earth. Basically, he's a supernatural and spiritual henchman for God. Fairly soon, he is enlisted by police detective Angela Dobson, to help her investigate the suspicious suicide of her twin sister.

Together, they find out Lucifer's son is planning to come into the plane of existence to rule. How? By using Angela's body, and the blood of Christ, stained on what the picture refers to as the "Spear of Destiny," the head of the spear which pierced Jesus' side after he was crucified. Wow. Now that I'm writing this plot line out, I'm realizing this picture was really pretty stupid.

Regardless, the picture did have a variety of spicy sequences, as well as a variety of cheese. Within the same minute, I would find myself saying, "That is SO cool," at one particular thing and, "That is utter crap" at another.

Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) plays the title character, while Rachel Weisz (Runaway Jury) plays Angela. Djimon Hounsou (Amistad) also makes an appearance as a neutral-aligned night club owner, former witch doctor, but it was obvious this two-time Academy Award® nominated actor had NO clue where his character was coming from. Reeves was Reeves, and Weisz was f**king HOT.

Director Francis Lawrence did well to keep this less than gripping plot visually interesting. "Constantine" is his only directing credit thus far.

This picture would be a perfect first date picture. There are several pretty good scares in it to get the lady you're with to melt into you a bit. As for being another movie based on a comic book--graphic novel series I should say, I definitely think this was more interesting and exciting than say "The Hulk."

One thing I really didn't like about the theology of the picture, Constantine states it was the "spear of destiny" which killed the Christ, not the actual crucifixion. This completely discredited the picture, since it states clearly in the Book of John, Chapter 19, the Christ's spirit leaves in verse 30, and he isn't stabbed in the side until verse 34. In short, Jesus was already dead when he was stabbed. The stabbing was to see if he was dead. This is also how the death of the Christ is presented in Mel Gibson's 2004 picture "The Passion of the Christ," so why would you have a main character like Constantine, who is supposed to be all knowing of the before and after life, state something so inaccurate? It stuck out like a soar thumb for me.

Overall, I think there may be more people who will enjoy this film than NOT. As for me, to quote a friend of mine, "I like it, but I can't defend it."

Benn - Where's the Humanity?