It’s always great when a comic book adaptation finds a home on a major streaming service, especially one with such a cult-classic following—and a sequel that is finally on the way two decades later, thanks to its star never giving up the good fight.
Constantine, which is based off of the DC Hellblazer comics, has finally made its way to HBO Max and is now available to stream. The movie centers around the titular John Constantine, played by Keanu Reeves, a man who has literally been to hell and back after a suicide attempt. And now he’s armed with the knowledge that when he dies, it’s Hell for him, unless he can earn enough goodwill to make his way back into God’s good graces. He finds himself helping policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) as she investigates what they believe to be a suicide and becomes caught up in a fight between Heaven and Hell.
The Movie Deserves More Than A Cult Following
The movie didn’t do great with critics, who claimed that it fell flat and failed to rouse any real interest outside of a few scenes. General audiences disagree, though, with most believing that it did the core narrative of the character justice and is more than deserving of the long-awaited sequel. Leigh Paatsch of the Herald Sun gave it 2 out of 5 stars, stating, “A handful of scenes depicting the high temperatures on the devil’s home turf are plausibly horrific, but the rest barely registers.” But Drew Dietsch of Giant Freakin Robot disagreed, saying, “Constantine deserves a cult following and should be remembered for all the things it did right instead of its perceived wrongs.”
Now, Reeves and the film’s original director, Francis Lawrence, have been in talks with James Gunn about bringing their vision for a sequel to life. Addressing the talks, Gunn said when speaking to the BobaTalks podcast, “I’ve discussed it on and off. I’ve discussed it with Keanu. I mean, I think that’s a great group of guys. I like all those people a lot, I think they are talented. But I have not read any script yet.” Reeves was able to elaborate a bit more, saying, “We’ve been trying to make this film for over a decade, and we just recently put a story together and pitched it to DC Studios, and they said, ‘OK.’ So, we’re going to try and write a script.” Lawrence spoke with Collider, saying, “We have gone through a bunch of the comics over the years and looked at things.” He elaborated, adding that the story and its main character have been “in the back of our minds for 20 years and just kind of percolating on ideas, and stories and characters we love, and ideas we love.”
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