(no subject)
Mar. 20th, 2005 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
learnedaxFriday ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
new_man and I went to see Constantine. It was, well, sorta ok, if you forgot about the comics.
I would have been happier with a choice other than Keanu, but he actually wasn't too bad at playing the stone cold non-reactive guy. He was basically decent.
Now, I don't have a real problem with filmmakers changing the character and backstory of comic characters, because it's the nature of the comic medium that different authors do different things. This is especially true of JC, because his personality has always varied quite a bit. However, it does kind of bug me when someone starts off with a rich, interesting character or story and tosses out major parts of it without really filling the void with anything. For instance, John is half dark, caustic rogue and half quirky British guy. It's a big blow to make him an American, but it might be alright if you made him distinctively New York, or distinctively LA. It would clearly be a different take on the character, but at least you wouldn't be taking something away without replacing it.
It's a little bit annoying that they streamlined the myriad weird things that go on in John's universe into almost exclusively Heaven v. Hell weirdness, but I can understand that in the context of the story they wanted to tell, which was all about demonic issues. There were some other problems (Lucifer was lame lame lame, John's powers (which were pleasantly vague) were more Sixth Sense than Hellblazer, seeing John as a kid was just embarrassing), but the core "you're a guy hated by all sides and doomed soon to hell" essence was decently well done.
There was really just one other major problem (beyond it just not being better): they turn John into a good guy. He's not doomed to hell because he's a bad guy, he's doomed to hell because as a troubled teen he tried to kill himself. That really sucks the life out of the character. They made him into a warrior for heaven, who's only doomed to hell on a technicality. He's still a jerk on the surface, which is good, but ultimately he's a good guy, which is bad.
Oh, well, there's a reason we only paid matinee prices
new_man and I went to see Constantine. It was, well, sorta ok, if you forgot about the comics.I would have been happier with a choice other than Keanu, but he actually wasn't too bad at playing the stone cold non-reactive guy. He was basically decent.
Now, I don't have a real problem with filmmakers changing the character and backstory of comic characters, because it's the nature of the comic medium that different authors do different things. This is especially true of JC, because his personality has always varied quite a bit. However, it does kind of bug me when someone starts off with a rich, interesting character or story and tosses out major parts of it without really filling the void with anything. For instance, John is half dark, caustic rogue and half quirky British guy. It's a big blow to make him an American, but it might be alright if you made him distinctively New York, or distinctively LA. It would clearly be a different take on the character, but at least you wouldn't be taking something away without replacing it.
It's a little bit annoying that they streamlined the myriad weird things that go on in John's universe into almost exclusively Heaven v. Hell weirdness, but I can understand that in the context of the story they wanted to tell, which was all about demonic issues. There were some other problems (Lucifer was lame lame lame, John's powers (which were pleasantly vague) were more Sixth Sense than Hellblazer, seeing John as a kid was just embarrassing), but the core "you're a guy hated by all sides and doomed soon to hell" essence was decently well done.
There was really just one other major problem (beyond it just not being better): they turn John into a good guy. He's not doomed to hell because he's a bad guy, he's doomed to hell because as a troubled teen he tried to kill himself. That really sucks the life out of the character. They made him into a warrior for heaven, who's only doomed to hell on a technicality. He's still a jerk on the surface, which is good, but ultimately he's a good guy, which is bad.
Oh, well, there's a reason we only paid matinee prices
no subject
Date: 2005-03-22 07:36 pm (UTC)This is one of those ways in which "John in his own book" is wildly different from "John in other peoples' books".
Constantine is, at heart, a con man. As such, keeping tight control over his surface persona is absolutely key. So when you see him in other books (especially Swamp Thing), most of what you see is that unflappable surface cool.
What makes Hellblazer interesting is that it cracks that shell -- it's about John the man, not John the persona, and it makes very clear that he is a very *typical* con man. Behind the omnipresent cigarette is a man who is scared *all* the time. He keeps up the surface cool because it's how he copes with the insane world he is immersed in, but he's always hanging on by his fingernails. And it absolutely kills him when his friends get hurt because of him, but he's never found a good way to prevent it.
The result is a character who is probably clinically depressed all the time, just one step removed from being a basket case. It doesn't help that, about half the time, the horrors around him really are his fault. (The current storyline, which has been running for a year or two now, can be traced directly back to him getting suckered by a demon, and the consequences have been horrific even by the standards of this story: death and insanity everywhere, and his life being systematically destroyed.)
So it's kind of unfortunate if they overplay the "cool" card in the movie. Without that fundamental angst, and the absolutely *pervasive* sense of guilt, you're missing half the character...