Released: October 2018
Director: Doug Murphy
Rated R
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Cast:
Matt Ryan: John Constantine
Damian O’Hare: Chas Chandler
Laura Bailey: Asa The Healer
Emily O’Brien: Renee Chandler
Jim Meskimen: Beroul
Rick D. Wasserman: Mictlantecuhtli
Can somebody explain something to me? How is it that Marvel Studios, one of the biggest movie studios acquired by Disney, can have some of the most amazing live-action films ever made, but their animated offerings are rather forgettable? Yet, on the flip-side of the coin, DC and Warner Bros, have had some issues with their live-action films over the past few years, but have mostly outstanding animated films. Seems like an odd reversal, don’t you think? I recently reviewed The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen a day or so ago and those were pretty damn good. Not only that, DC’s animated Suicide Squad was a hell of a lot better than the live-action film that came out a couple years ago. It seems to me that DC’s live-action offerings over the past 7 years, with the exceptions of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, have met with failure, both critically and at the box-office. Their attempt at creating a universe like Marvel’s MCU is pretty much dead in the water at this point, but I’ll discuss that in a different post. With that said, Warner Bros and their animation studio have taken some pretty serious risks by going to some really dark territory in animated films such Justice League Dark and Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay. I’ve seen some pretty dark comic book movies, and of the animated variety, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like Constantine: City of Demons.
In City of Demons, we meet John Constantine, a master magician and expert on the occult. He’s also very good at solving magic-related situations. He’s also a broken man, who smokes and drinks himself to sleep every night because of a tragic event in his past. A little bit of this past catches up with him as his old friend, Chas Chandler seeks his help. Chas’s daughter is in a coma, but Chas believes that something supernatural caused it, so he enlists the reluctant aid of Constantine to help his daughter. As it turns out, the child’s soul is missing. In order to locate the child’s soul, Constantine calls on Asa the Healer to look after the child, while he and Chas go to Los Angeles to find answers. I love movies that have a really dark tone. It makes for a more interesting event. The Dark Knight from 2008 was one of the darkest mainstream comic book movies ever to be released and it had an amazing story. It was very dark, and so was the animated Justice League Dark film, but Constantine: City of Demons is grim-dark. City of Demons started out as an animated web-series and was shown on the CW network, but it was recently released as full-feature on Blu-Ray and DVD. While I love dark stories, City of Demons goes to some extremely dark and bleak places. While I wouldn’t necessarily say that all the film’s risks paid off, but most of them did. Because City of Demons started out as a series, there are moments here and there that seem to drag a little bit with a lot of exposition. But the overall story is really good and engaging, and it has you in its grip from beginning to end, and boy what an ending that is, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. You’ll have to see it for yourself.
City of Demons is a grisly movie. This has to be one of the goriest animated movies I’ve seen in years. It’s certainly the bloodiest that DC has put out. While DC may have been antsy about putting in extreme violence in their live-action films, they don’t seem to have any self-control when it comes to their animated movies. This is a violent movie. It’s not just the gore, however. There is a lot of graphically disturbing imagery that I wouldn’t have expected from an animated picture. There is a moment when Constantine is invited to go to a “party” hosted by a nasty demon. I won’t describe what takes place, but it really feels like walking into an animated Hellraiser film. While the genre tag above says fantasy/horror, make no mistake about it: City of Demons is a horror movie, through and through. The action in the film is spectacular, but it is very ghastly. It gets brutal, and the fact that it’s animated makes the violence more exaggerated and horrific. They do stuff in this movie that you normally don’t see in a mainstream horror flick. I’m not saying its a bad thing, but I AM saying that this is not a kid’s movie, whatsoever, and it’s certainly not a film for people with weak stomachs.
City of Demons wouldn’t work as well as it does if it didn’t have strong characters. There is some really good characterizations and motivations that you see throughout the film. The character of Chas feels like a real person who wants to save his little girl, while Asa the Healer seems like one of those demons that doesn’t seem to behave like what you would think a demon would behave like. The main villain of the film is a legless, bull-horned demon that is as savage as he is manipulative. John Constantine is one of those characters that not many people know about, but he is definitely very interesting regardless. This guy is a full-blown alcoholic and damaged individual, but I would imagine you would be too if you knew you were responsible for an innocent child getting sent to Hell for eternity. Like I said, this movie goes to some really dark territory. The performances are fantastic all around with Matt Ryan reprising his role as Constantine. This marks the third time that Mr. Ryan has taken the role, with Justice League Dark and the live-action series of Constantine. His character isn’t a nice guy, but he does come around eventually to do the right thing.
The art-style of Constantine: City of Demons is very similar to that of previous animated features from DC, but I think it really works here. It actually allows the imagery on screen to be that much more disturbing and violent. The level of detail is amazing, even in the more…..gruesome moments it brings the whole world to terrifying life. The creature designs are incredible, especially the ancient Aztec god that Constantine summons. Again, this is not going to be a movie for everyone, as there are certain images here that could be a little too much for some people. I do have some gripes with the film, though. For one, the pacing seems to drag a little bit in the middle, and while I appreciate exposition, there’s a little too much. There’s a phrase in the film industry that people need to understand: Show, don’t tell. If there’s a character moment that the film-makers want the audience to understand, you don’t need words to explain it. Show it to them; trust them to figure it out on their own. More often than not, they will. Trust the audience, that’s all I’m saying.
Overall, though, I think Constantine: City of Demons is really good. Again, it’s not going to be for everyone, but for those that like this style of story-telling and the dark nature of Constantine and his world, there’s a lot this movie has to offer. Just be aware that this movie has some serious bite to it. It’s definitely worth checking out.
My Final Recommendation: Don’t summon demons. It never ends well. 9/10.