In the writer’s opinion, 2005’s Constantine film is an underrated comic book movie. Yes, it is granted that Keanu Reeves’ performance as John Constantine was not what the fans of the comic book wanted. The director, Francis Lawrence did a good job building this world and the cast was packed with a few top-notch talents like Tilda Swinton, Djimon Hounsou, and Rachel Weisz.
Lawrence is now back with the new movie, Red Sparrow, which join him with the Hunger Games star, Jennifer Lawrence. During a press junket for Red Sparrow, Francis had been asked how he would have done Constantine differently:
“Wow. It’s a tricky question. Now I’ve made seven movies, that was my first. I think there are definite story issues; I would change some things there… I think the biggest things I would change are in the story… If I’d known we were getting an R, I would have made an R-rated movie. We followed all the PG-13 rules, but still got an R so it’s not an R. That’s what I would suggest.”
Constantine is an example of how the horror and superhero genres can blend into a huge blockbuster. Ironically this is a code that Hollywood is now trying to crack with movies like New Mutants and DC’s Justice League Dark. The Justice League Dark team is led by John Constantine.
Justice League Dark needs a whole new director to go along with the script. Doug Liman had been onboard at one given point, but names like Andres Muschietti have floated around. Muschietti is now busy with IT: Chapter 2. It seems like Francis Lawrence has some wishful thinking that may be put to some good use.
Red Sparrow will release on March 2nd.
