Constantine: City of Demons

I knew that DC had plans to take this series of shorts and combine it into a cohesive story with a bit more added on after episode 6. As it stood, I thought the shorts were good by themselves and adding another 20 or 30 minutes to the end to wrap things up and make a pretty good solo Constantine animated series/film.

What I didn't expect was for DC to add a full HOUR in material as a follow-up to the shorts, and boy was the wait for this worth it.

I've always liked Constantine as a character and thought Matt Ryan was an excellent choice to embody the character. The one thing that always bothered me is up to this point we haven't gotten a truly good Constantine story. The short-lived live-show was good but it was hindered creatively by the fact that it was on network TV so they couldn't truly go dark with it. The animated film Justice League Dark did better, but because it was a team movie obviously each character needed their own time in the spotlight.

City of Demons is exactly the kind of story needed for John Constantine. It's dark and bloody as hell and doesn't pull a lot of punches with the visuals and story. It's also pretty damn heartbreaking too, but I'm not going to spoil that part because it really does need to be experienced fresh without any idea it's even coming. I really, REALLY hope DC does more of Constantine like this because damn did I need it after the Batman & Harley Quinn and Batman Ninja debacle.

I can't tell you how happy I am they took these six shorts and exploded it into a really good hour and a half film. Other than one specific point where they added on some footage to one of the original shorts that ended up transitioning pretty badly, if you're a DC fan and especially if you're a Constantine/Hellblazer fan, I'd say you're going to enjoy this.

Warner brothers never cease to amaze me. They treat these films as if they are a necessity rather than a pleasure and they don't realise that they have gold in their hands. If they were just willing to make the films a but longer, maybe two hours, who knows what they could make.

This is just a loose mish-mash of two distinct stories in the Hellblazer universe and they managed to even mess that up. The tactics John uses here make no sense, and are just a deus ex machina the writers pulled out their ass because they didn't have enough imagination to come up with something that works. Of course they could have just used the original plot... which worked way better. Read the comics. Way. Way. Better. The only right thing in this sorry excuse of a story is the voicing.

This was great but a little disappointing. Each "episode" is barely six minutes long and it ends without any kind of resolution or a cliffhanger. It just stops, abruptly right as the plot is starting to unfold. As a huge Constantine fan I feel it was a little half assed. Maybe they will make more and pick this back up.

As for the animation and voice acting and judging the mere content, it's great. Still worth a watch even though it can be done in one sitting.

Or at least an honest iteration of the source material that this animated movie lives up to. It accurately portrays John's non-chalance and his struggle with his inner self. Come on DC we know you can do it.