Sometimes the passage of time can gradually place a film in a radically different cultural context than the one it came out in. The many pieces that make up a single work of art all have their own impact on the outside world, and the ever-changing flow of popular opinion can place art into completely unfamiliar territory.
Before the MCU, superhero movies weren't exactly rare. It may seem that way in comparison, but they just weren't the ubiquitous powerhouse genre they are today. When a new superhero movie was announced back in the early 2000s, almost every project was a big-screen debut and some went better than others.
John Constantine was created by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben in 1985. He was originally intended as a minor side-character in an early issue of Swamp Thing before being promoted to his own series in 1988. Hellblazer, Constantine's solo series, went on to be one of the biggest horror comics in DC's catalog and the flagship property of their Vertigo imprint. Constantine quickly became a hugely beloved character, moving into a level of cult fandom not seen by most fixtures of the genre. With his huge popularity, it's shocking that it took so long for someone to adapt him to the big screen.
Efforts to make the adaptation happen began in 1997, only 12 years after Constantine's first appearance. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner shopped the project around for years before proper filmmaking began. Paul Hunter of Bulletproof Monk fame was the first name attached to direct, but he left shortly thereafter. The Cell and Immortals director Tarsem Singh was tapped in 2001 and Nicolas Cage was in line to star, but the world was tragically robbed of that stellar partnership. Singh bailed on the project for unknown reasons, leading to a legal battle between the director and Warner Bros. After losing another director and a star, Donner went after the man who would eventually become the face of the project, Keanu Reeves. First-time director Francis Lawrence signed on to helm the project with Keanu in the title role.
Keanu Reeves is in a very different place in his career today than he was in the early 2000s. The poorly received Matrix Revolutions had just hit the big screen when the first trailer for Constantine hit the airwaves. The popular opinion of Keanu Reeves was mostly negative in a ton of his early career. His current cultural dominance would have been unthinkable at the time and audiences at the time were divided on his performance in the role. Reeves doesn't look anything like Constantine, who was inspired by Sting of all people, and he spoke with his American accent in the film. Despite not looking much like Constantine, Reeves is excellent in the role. Snarky, condescending, demanding, taciturn. The writing does much of the lifting, but Reeves elevates the material. The film came out years before the famed "Keanaissance", but it's a solid performance among his repertoire.
The plot of Constantine draws heavily from The Boys writer Garth Ennis's 1991 run on the character. Now set in Los Angeles, down-on-his-luck exorcist John Constantine works to free innocent souls from the clutches of demons while battling his terminal lung cancer. Constantine is in a constant tug of war between the forces of Hell and an uncaring God, convinced that the only way he can escape his eternal damnation is to use his ability to see spirits to help others. As he goes about his grim work and approaches his fated end, he meets a detective desperate to solve the mysterious death of her sister. Together the pair uncover a deadly conspiracy that threatens to throw the world into demonic control. It plays out like a detective story in which all the suspects are horror movie monsters, which is appropriate for the source material.
The concept of horror intertwining with superhero cinema is also a topic that is perceived differently today. While Constantine was released alongside the Blade trilogy, the MCU model has enforced a somewhat stringent expectation of tone. Sam Raimi's recent Doctor Strange in Multiverse of Madness played with old-fashioned horror elements in a traditional superhero story. The response was controversial among hardcore fans. Some MCU fans are reticent to see any breach of genre or embrace of a singularly strange creative voice. Constantine represents an era before anyone had the final say over what exactly a superhero movie looked like.
Constantine is not a perfect movie, but it is fun, fascinating, engaging, and one-of-a-kind. Keanu is great in the fan-favorite role. First-time director Francis Lawrence finds the fun in the material from both sides. Other films have captured aspects of what Constantine had, but the combination of elements is part of what makes the film enjoyable. Fans of the comic, Keanu Reeves, or superhero horror as a genre combo should check out Constantine.