Constantine (Warner HD-DVD)
Picture: B
Sound: B+ Extras: C Film: C-
In the 1970s, when DC Comics went up for sale, many passed
on the company (or in the case of the defunct Mego Toy Company, could not
figure how to finance it) until Warner Communications figured they would be
better off buying them outright than licensing Superman for the Christopher
Reeves feature films. Since then, the
company has built and rebuilt the company up, for better and sometimes for
worse, focusing on the big heroes, but other interesting characters have
existed since the 1930s and new ones surfaced since (including in the new
Vertigo label) the acquisition that would make for great film projects. Constantine has been a favorite for
years, but when it was announced that Keanu Reeves would play the title role,
that was the end for fans and the resulting Francis Lawrence film did not
perform well at all at the box office.
A Music Video director, Lawrence has not handled narrative
features very well, despite some interesting past work with music artists. As much as I would like to blame him for the
film’s many failures, the core problem is turning too much of the property into
a Keanu Reeves film instead of waling the line between his persona and what
made the graphic novel comic books work so well. As demon hunter John Constantine, Reeves is
one of those heroes who sees and knows a dark underworld of supernatural evil
few know or understand, and must use wild weapons to battle and eliminate these
invaders into the world of the living before a catastrophe happens. Too bad he did not use one of those deadly
weapons of supernatural mass destruction on the screenplay!
Reeves is one of the best lead movie star actors around,
but he has an uncanny knack for picking projects that usually do not work for
him or hit for the studio. For every Matrix,
Speed or Bill & Ted, he seems to land up in far more
misguided fiascos like this or Johnny Mnemonic that do not do his comic
skills justice. That many demographics
can accept him as the hero in action and comedy is rare and there are just not
enough talented writers around who can (or care to) write for his specialized
talents. As a result, what could have
been the next Matrix franchise is a total dud and part of it comes from
the imbalance between comedy that falls flat too much and action that is
bombastic to the point of being silly, only outdone by revisionist takes on
Christianity that are like Da Vinci Code for idiots (which that says
something) and a Fantasy genre mess like Elektra that is really a bad Lord
Of The Rings cash-in not-so-cleverly disguised as a Superhero genre
film. Even Rachel Weitz, Shia LaBeouf,
Tilda Swinton, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale and Peter Stormare are shockingly
wasted, and that’s a solid supporting cast.
In this case, read the book, skip the movie, unless you want to enjoy
the technical proficiency of the image and especially the sound on HD-DVD as
demo material.
The 1080p digital 2.35 X 1 High Definition image was shot
by cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, A.F.C., A.S.C., in not-always-super
Super 35mm film, but is so plastered with endless digital work that his better
work here gets lost, even when it offers a certain gloss. Color is a bit off here, which was actually
even the case in the 35mm prints, but annoying in either case. That Lawrence started as a Music Video
director only seems to compound the situation, with sloppy editing and a
choppiness that is just a wreck. That
the graphic novel comic is so much more visually compelling is an
understatement.
The sound
was an early first for the home video market because it is one of only four
titles so far in the new format so far to offer Dolby TrueHD, roughly the same
sound format as the Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) format from the DVD-Audio
format (reviewed often on this site for the now-dead format, TrueHD expanded
its capacities) that Dolby has been licensing for years. It actually
(supposedly) promises to be up to three times as clear, but we are still
skeptical. For this review, we initially felt we were not able to
adequately test the new format due to the limitations of current hardware, but
will note that with only Phantom of The Opera, Training Day and The
Perfect Storm (all from Warner) offer TrueHD as of the original posting.
This film has a mixed score by James Horner and was issued as a full 8-track
sound film in Sony’s SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) format.
Finally though, two recent action films join two music driven films in this
respect.
The Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 mix when revisited on the proper equipment,
was superior as expected with constant surround activity, even holding up many
years later. The film is on the
forgotten side, not a big hot or one of Reeves more memorable outings, plus
fans of the books thought the lead should have been British and not Reeves. It is now the default highlight of the
film. The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix
still shows the aggressive soundfields produced for films magic and fantasy
themes, plus being a showcase for a DC Comics superhero, Warner made sure the
sound was state of the art. The score by
Brian Tyler & Klaus Badelt is not memorable, but when this sound kicks in,
it is the highlight of the film.
Extras
include the new “in-movie experience” interactive function intended to be like
the next step after an audio commentary, with director Lawrence in this case
leading the possibilities, though he still is joined by writer Goldsman on one
commentary track. The other is with
screenwriters Kevin Brodbin & Frank Cappello, who try to explain the
radical changes from graphic novel comic book to Keanu Reeves custom commercial
film without much luck. You also get 14
featurettes, a Music Video and the original theatrical trailer, but it all adds
up to how NOT to do a comic book adaptation.
- Nicholas Sheffo
