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Constantine Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: R (for violence and demonic images) Theater release: February 18, 2005 by Warner Bros. Directed by: Francis Lawrence Runtime: 2 hours 1 minutes Cast: Keanu Reeves (John Constantine), Rachel Weisz (Angela Dodson/Isabel Dodson), Max Baker (Beeman), Djimon Hounsou (Midnite), Tilda Swanton (Gabriel), Shia LeBeouf (Chas) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

You'd be hard-pressed to find an adventure film that uses as much Christian terminology and symbolism as Constantine. You'd have a tougher time finding one that's makes a bigger mess of it.

Director Francis Lawrence's stylish, adrenaline-fueled adaptation of the comic book Hellblazer will probably win some enthusiastic fans among Christian moviegoers keen on pop culture. After all, this hero seeks redemption, fights Satan, entertains angels, and blasts demons with weapons that bear the mark of the Cross (from the blessed brass knuckles to a golden crucifix-Tommy gun). But if you're looking for profound spiritual exploration, this isn't your movie. Nor is it a fun hodgepodge of magical fairy tales like Harry Potter. It's an R-rated immersion in the vocabulary of demon possession and the occult. Compared with Constantine, The Exorcist seems like an after-school special.

Keanu Reeves is the chain-smoking exorcist John Constantine

John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) is a suit-and-tie exorcist and a chain smoker. He's been to hell and back—literally. Committing suicide, he plunged himself into Satan's clutches, only to be resuscitated back to the land of the living. Why suicide? John grew up with the "gift" of seeing spiritual warfare around him: screaming demons, angels with enormous wings, and "half-breeds"—agents clad in human flesh who act as influence peddlers serving to nudge people either heavenward or to the abyss. You'd think his taste of brimstone would have convinced him to repent. But no—John's too proud, too resentful. Instead he'll try to earn salvation as a volunteer demon hunter on the streets of Los Angeles.

It's a bad time to be a soldier in the spirit wars. In a sequence that recalls The Return of the King's prologue, a talisman called the Spear of Destiny corrupts and transforms the man who discovers it. This menacing villain marches toward L.A., desolation in his wake, preparing to unleash a new devil that will upset "the balance" in the struggle of heaven versus hell.

When John discovers that demons are breaking the rules of engagement and coming through into the physical world, his colleagues don't believe him: "We're finger puppets to them, not doorways." But John knows better. He sets out on a quest with three purposes: to help a police investigator (Rachel Weisz as Angela Dodson) unravel the mystery of her sister's murder; to avert the coming apocalypse; and to stop the spread of his terminal lung cancer. (In The Matrix, Keanu knew kung fu. Here, he has coughing fits.)

Rachel Weisz is a police investigator trying to solve her sister's murder

John gets help from a cocky apprentice named Chas (Shia LeBeouf from Holes) who wants to "get off the bench" and into the game of spiritual warfare; an alcoholic priest (Pruitt Taylor Vince) who scans spiritual wavelengths for psychic murmurings; and a relic collector (Max Baker) who lives in a bowling alley. But other colleagues confuse matters. A nightclub manager called Midnite (Djimon Hounsou) claims to be neutral, but he happily gives hell-spawn a place to party. Gabriel, an androgynous, "half-breed" angel (Tilda Swinton), is less than angelic.

And yet Gabriel alone has some grasp of the exorcist's theological blind spots. He (she?) reminds John that salvation cannot be earned through good works. When John asks what God expects, Gabriel replies, "The usual. Self-sacrifice. Belief." John knows the value of repentance; he lectures a demon (rock star Gavin Rossdale) on the subject. But his grudge against the Almighty is too strong. "God's just a child with an anthill," he declares. "He has no plan."

Constantine touches on many truths: the battle between forces seeking to save or to ruin souls, the reality of possession, the responsibility that comes with God-given gifts. Lawrence and his screenwriters Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello do not identify themselves as particularly religious (although Cappello says he has a Lutheran background). They score some points for trying. But they'd have avoided embarrassing errors if they'd consulted with some Bible readers. First Corinthians has chapters, not "acts." Jesus died as a result of crucifixion, not because a Roman soldier thrust a spear into his side. A Catholic could have told them that Roman Catholicism does not consign suicide victims to eternity in hell.

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