I liked Constantine, too, and if it hadn't been for the miscasting of the title role, it would have been a pretty decent adaptation of the comic.

Yeah. On it's own terms, the movie is fine. You just have to put the comic out of your head a bit.

Well, he wrote Constantine, too.

IMDB doesn't list him as an author for the movie. Wikipedia tells me he did a rewrite, so.

t /pedantic

eta: I say that because I was confused that it said he wrote for Constantine, and then IMDB said no. I wasn't trying to fuss at anyone here. Especially since everyone here was right.

I liked Constantine, too, and if it hadn't been for the miscasting of the title role, it would have been a pretty decent adaptation of the comic.

I think it was a decent movie with some characters who coincidentally had the same names as characters in the comic. I don't think it was an adaptation of the comic, even though it pretended to be. In fact the character is written in some ways as the opposite of the comic book Constantine.

OK, to take an example: in the comic Constantine rejects God & Devil alike as rival tyrants. He explicitly says he rejects tyranny of all kinds, whether by parliaments, or corporations or pale kings and princes. (To keep him from seeming too virtuous, he is also a selfish bastard and user - in short a trickster figure.)

In the movies he is doomed to hell for committing suicide, and seeks salvation. In the comic Constantine never sought salvation in that sense. (When devils and demons were coming to take him to hell he tricked his way into temporary safety, but he never begged. And he seeks redemption rather than salvation: that his he has a great deal on his conscience, and is trying to make up for it so he can think better of himself. Maybe he has friends and family and lovers and ghosts he'd like to think better of him too. But he never seeks he good opinion of any authority figure, least of all God.)

Or to take another point. In the comic, Gabriel is evidence that (as Dean in Supernatural puts it) "Angels are dicks". By having Gabriel switch sides to help Lucifer, it takes the edge off the point of having him do all these Dickish things while an Angelic servant of the Lord. I could go on, but the movie Constantine is the weakling second cousin of the comic book Constantine.

But Gabriel didn't switch sides to help Lucifer in the movie. He was still a loyal servant of God, he was just also batshit crazy and going about his loyal service in a way that would have resulted in horror and suffering on a worldwide scale.

(I actually think that was the most interesting thing about the movie. Instead of Christopher Walken's jealous, disdainful archangel that wanted to keep Mankind out of Heaven, we got Swinton's serene, loving one that wanted to blast all of Mankind into Heaven from a brimstone-fueled cannon...)

I liked Constantine on its own.

The Umbrella Academy is awesome, IMO. The story is solid, and the characters are well written.

Thanks, Jilli and Cash. Maybe I'll give it a look one day.

But Gabriel didn't switch sides to help Lucifer in the movie. He was still a loyal servant of God, he was just also batshit crazy and going about his loyal service in a way that would have resulted in horror and suffering on a worldwide scale.

But he was deciding he knew better than God how to serve God. He was in effect switching sides, by helping Lucifer. He mean't for it best is an argument that could be made for Lucifer. AGain, not denying it was a good movie. And I agree Gabriel was good characters. Just not a good adaptation of the comic, if you see the distinction. Had very little to do with the comic. And IMO as unfaithful to the spirt as to the letter of the comic.

Instead of Christopher Walken's jealous, disdainful archangel that wanted to keep Mankind out of Heaven

Though that was a masterful interpretation, even if he did get upstaged by Viggo.

I'm not a Seth Rogen fan to start with, but this description of a sex scene from Observe and Report makes my head spin:

SETH ROGEN: When we're having sex and she's unconscious like you can literally feel the audience thinking, like, how the fuck are they going to make this okay? Like, what can possibly be said or done that I'm not going to walk out of the movie theater in the next thirty seconds? . . . And then she says, like, the one thing that makes it all okay:
BRANDI: "Why are you stopping, motherfucker?"

From Gawker. I don't even want to watch the R-rated trailer. Just, ick.

Maybe I'll give it a look one day.

If you want a loaner, I can send the Apocalypse Suite TPB.