The dagger of destiny has been found and the son of Satan
seeks to rise from Hell to control earth.
John Constantine is the one man who can stop it from happening but as
his allies begin to die off will he be able to stop the forces of evil
alone? Knowledge of the Catholic
religion will help in the understanding of this story some, but I doubt it’s
required to follow along.
A
scavenger in Mexico finds the dagger and instantly becomes a slave to it so to
speak. He takes off running into an
unknown direction when he is violently struck by a car. The car is smashed up and the man pulls
himself from the wreckage unscathed. He
notices an odd mark on his wrist and runs away again. It’s clear at this point you discover the
dagger has some supernatural powers to it.
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| If you were damned what would you do? |
Now we
turn to the star of the movie John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) who is a vulgar
man that exorcises demons and sends them back to Hell. He smokes non-stop which has given him bloody
coughs along with lung cancer from what my best guess is. He drinks liquor to top it all off almost
with each cigarette he inhales. It should be clear now that he isn’t somebody you’d like to know unless you’re
name is Chas (Shia LaBeouf). He is
Constantine’s driver for the most part and has a witty personality. He longs to participate in Constantine’s
practices but is shunned from it.
As the
movie begins Constantine runs into a friend of his, if that’s what you want to
refer to this person as. His name is
Father Hennessy (Pruitt Taylor Vince) and he called Constantine here because he
wasn’t able to exorcise a demon. It
seems he has a lesser strength between the two and Constantine basically
ignores him and goes up the building to his client, the possessed girl. Father Hennessy is a fat old man so it’s easy
to see why he failed. Constantine
arrives to see the girl strapped to a bed squirming about looking quite
evil. He takes it all naturally and
pulls out his tiny medallion keychain.
He opens up the curtain and flashes them from the sunlight onto the
girl. One of the medallion’s reacts and
the girl feels pain. He presses it
against her forehead and chants some phrases.
It doesn’t work so he improvises and demands a three foot mirror. It’s fascinating to watch him prepare for the
exorcism as he seems well versed in the method.
He ends up trapping a soldier demon into the mirror then throwing it out
the window to stop the evil creature from entering earth. After it all a man named Balthazar is
watching Constantine vacate the premises in secret. He looks shady, we’ll see about this guy
later.
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| The realm of Hell isn't a welcoming sight. |
Let’s
side step for some background. An
interesting concept is the three plains of Heaven, Hell and earth. They all exist on top of each other but the
catch is no one from Heaven or Hell is allowed to cross into earth. It’s a supposed deal they have to win the
souls of those on earth. They are
allowed to influence humanity but never to cross over. There are half-breeds that live on earth that
try to protect or harm humans. The
demons Constantine has been encountering lately have clearly been trying to
enter the earth domain.
A bit of back story about Constantine
Constantine
is a man with a psychic gift from birth.
There are others like him but he seems to be one of the most
gifted. In his young age he was deemed
crazy by the things he saw. His parents
tried to help him but made it worse somehow, it’s not really explained. Constantine eventually committed suicide,
which in the Catholic religion is a one way ticket to Hell. He was sent back though and he knows not why. He spends his life exorcising demons in
hopes of gaining passage to Heaven through good deeds. The rule stands though that if you suicide
all hope is to be lost forever. It makes
one rather despicable and hateful.
Constantine lives knowingly that his fate lies in Hell anyway but still
holds onto a sliver of hope that he will earn his way to Heaven. This explains his attitude, smoking, drinking
and any other negative aspect of his character that exist. Probably even leaving the toilet seat up or
not taking his shoes off at the door!
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| I'll try to help but only for the benefit of my soul. |
Back to
the story, Angela (Rachel Weisz, now we’re talking) is a detective trying to
figure out why her twin sister Isabel committed suicide. They both had similar gifts as Constantine
whereas Isabel embraced her gift while Angela completely denied and ignored
it. Isabel was to be used as a host for
the son of Satan and she knew this. Her
only known way to prevent that was to suicide and so she did. She goes to Hell as the rule states. Angela watches video recording after
recording trying to find a glimmer of hope she was murdered to no avail. All she sees eventually is an odd moment when
Isabel says, “Constantine” in a video clip.
Her sister is at a mental help clinic of some kind and its strange enough
she was able to get to the roof without being stopped, I’d be skeptical of
suicide too if I was Angela.
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| Splish Splash I was taking a bath! |
Angela
seeks out Constantine to find out the truth about Isabel as she won’t believe her
suicide. He makes a cruel remark that he’s
surprised Angela is shocked that someone at a mental ward killed
themselves. Its part of that wonderful character
he has, he’s so charming with the ladies.
He does a rather neat trick by visiting Hell to find her. He sits on a chair with a cat with his feet
in water. It’s odd but effective enough
to be convincing if you ask me. He brings
a hospital band to prove it to Angela.
He found the band when Isabel tore it off and sent it through the air to
him while in Hell. It’s interesting that
time stops when visiting Hell, while still on earth. Later in the movie Angela still insists on
seeing her sister in Hell. She gets in a
bathtub full of water while Constantine basically drowns her. The bathtub suddenly shatters and the water
goes everywhere while you see steam rising from Angela’s body. She has seen her sister in Hell and finally
believes the truth. Now that didn’t take
much convincing now did it?
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| A reward for reading my review. |
Constantine
visits a doctor to confirm how sick he is and asks the doctor if he can be
healed. It’s funny when the doctor
laughs saying twenty years ago you wanted to die but now you want to live. His time ends up being limited due to his
rapidly declining health. He then visits
Gabriel, a half-breed, who tells him passage to Heaven requires doing things
for others. Constantine tries to drive
the point that his exorcisms aren’t for nothing but gets told back he’s doing it
for his own gain in the end.
Remember
this guy? Balthazar is a half-breed
demon stirring up trouble by killing Constantine’s associates. Constantine eventually gets infuriated with
him and goes to his fancy high-rise to discover the truth about what’s going
on. He kills Balthazar but also loses
Angela at the same time. The son of
Satan uses Angela’s body to attempt a passage to earth. Constantine and Chas make a last ditch effort
to stop him. The dagger of destiny has
made its way to L.A. along with many other half-breeds. Gabriel is the half-breed providing the blood
of God needed for Satan’s son to return.
It’s apparent that the blood of God is needed to restore the son of
Satan to earth. I still wonder why
Gabriel would want to do this. Does she
want to have some kind of controlling power on earth? I’m not sure how much better things would be
for her with the son of Satan in charge.
Constantine is unable to exorcise the son of Satan perhaps because of a
strength factor.
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| I've come to collect my soul John. |
He goes
to the edge by committing suicide again to drag Satan (Peter Stormare) himself
to retrieve his soul. It’s been said
Constantine’s soul is the only one he would come to get personally. He informs Satan of Gabriel’s plot with his
son leaving Satan to repel his son back to Hell and make Gabriel a mortal. Satan knows Constantine wants something in
return. Satan knew better that Constantine
would suicide a second time so he agrees to his request to allow Isabel passage
to Heaven from Hell in exchange for his soul.
Constantine by doing so then sacrificed himself in the process, finally giving
himself for another, he ascends toward Heaven when Satan angers and cures his
lung ailment. That leaves Constantine
back on earth for a third chance. Satan
again seems to be extending Constantine’s life in hopes to get his soul in the
future.
Constantine
learned what he must do now and makes the joke he only needed to die twice to
figure it out. It’s a solid movie
actually, with action, intrigue and wicked special effects. It has its moments of slow-paced scenes and
happenings so bizarre you feel it might cross the line but it doesn’t hurt the
overall film much. I understand the
story much more the second time around as I have seen it once before. Keanu Reeves delivers quite a performance
which fits the movie perfectly and Rachel Weisz leads well as the supporting
role. Peter Stormare really sells his role as Satan. I can’t say I hate anything in
particular about the movie and it remains a repeatable film to watch.
The labels just below can link you to similar posts about this one so check them out!
Who doesn't like Keanu Reeves~?!
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