Constantine
Plot
John Constantine is approached by Det. Angela Dodson who needs his help to prove that her twin sister Isabel's death was not a suicide. The dead woman was a devout Catholic and Angela refuses to accept she would have taken her own life. She's asked Constantine for help because he has a reputation for dealing with the mystical. In fact, he is a demon hunter whose sole purpose on Earth is to send demons back to the nether regions. John himself has been to Hell and knows that he is destined to return there on his death - but hopes his good deeds may find him a place in Heaven. As he looks into Isabel's death, he realizes demons are trying to break through to the human world, and his battles lead him into a direct conflict with Satan.
Overall Series Review
Categorical Breakdown
The lead character, John Constantine, is a white male played by Keanu Reeves, who is fundamentally a flawed and selfish anti-hero trying to save his own soul rather than a flawless hero or an incompetent figure. The character is a dark-haired American in the film, which deviates from the original blonde, British comic character. The narrative does not focus on race, immutable characteristics, or intersectional hierarchy. The only potential for sociopolitical critique comes from an interpretation of Constantine's work as 'deporting' half-demons, which is an external reading of the supernatural metaphor and not an explicit theme of the movie.
The narrative's central conflict is a universal, supernatural battle between angels and demons for the control of Earth, primarily set in the Western city of Los Angeles. Hell is visually depicted as a burning, post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles. The plot does not frame Western civilization, American heritage, or its culture as fundamentally corrupt or racist. The institutions of the Church and Christian mythology are used as the foundational framework for the supernatural conflict, and the effort is focused on protecting humanity's home (Earth) from chaos, rather than deconstructing it.
The female co-lead, Detective Angela Dodson, is introduced as a competent professional (LAPD detective) but is initially a skeptic in need of the male protagonist's guidance into the occult world, and she does not demonstrate instant perfection or the 'Mary Sue' trope. The male protagonist, Constantine, is highly flawed, cynical, and terminally ill from chain-smoking, not an emasculated buffoon. The climactic conflict involves stopping a demonic 'birth,' and the focus is on a perverse supernatural incarnation, not on an anti-natal message against motherhood or family structure.
The movie does not contain any material concerning the centering of alternative sexualities, the deconstruction of the nuclear family, or the subject of gender ideology. The standard structure is heterosexual, and the primary dynamic is between the male and female co-protagonists.
The film utilizes and subverts traditional Judeo-Christian theology to create its dramatic premise. It features the Archangel Gabriel as a primary antagonist who betrays humanity, and portrays God as a passive gambler in a 'wager' with Satan for human souls, which deviates from traditional Christian doctrine. Salvation is presented as earned through 'works' (specifically a selfless, sacrificial act) rather than grace or faith, which is a significant re-writing of Christian theological tenets. This corruption and reversal of sacred figures and concepts in a film steeped in religious iconography pushes the rating higher, even though the ultimate redemptive act affirms a transcendent moral law based on selflessness.