(no subject)

[olivermoss]

They are doing another Keanu Reeves Constantine movie. I like Keanu. I love Constantine. I heard the first one was a good movie and an S tier urban fantasy film. But the version of Constantine in the Keanu movies is fundamentally not John Constantine. And J J Abrams is involved in this sequel. Yeah, that'll be a no from me, Bob. I will not post often or at length about this, or judge anyone who likes it. It's popular with people who don't know shit about the actual Hellblazer comics. I am just going to actively ignore the existence of this film unless someone brings it up to me.

I'll just curl up with my Matt Ryan as Constantine episodes of Constantine and Legends of Tomorrow and also the issues of Planetary that addresses gave rise to a certain set of DC characters. It's hard to be too bothered by bad adaptations when good ones exist.

Comments

[james]

I can't help but think this is in part a reaction to Joanna Constantine. (It might not be, but it seems coincidentally timed.)

[olivermoss]

I know Keanu has been after a sequel for a while. It may have to do with that, but I feel like it's been somewhat in the works for a while. In general Constantine's become a way more well known character since the original film. I remember when it came out a lot of people didn't even know it was based on anything.

[muccamukk]

The Keanu movie is a super shitty adaptation, and a actually genuinely good movie, if that makes sense. I'm also dubious about JJ involved in anything, but I'll probably watch it.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, I've heard it's a good film. But I'm very much giving it a miss.

[finch]

I had no idea that there are people who liked that movie, that's wild.

[olivermoss]

He was a lot less known back then. For a lot of people, that was their first exposure to him. It's apparently a good film, just 5 or 6 Ships of Theseus too far to be a Constantine film.

[mistressofmuses]

I seem to remember enjoying the first Constantine movie, but I haven't seen it since fairly soon after it came out, and I did not have anything to compare the character to.

Bleh, bummer when bad adaptations exist, but I'm very glad that you have GOOD ones to focus on instead.

[olivermoss]

I am curious how they will handle things, because Constantine has gone from a niche character to a well known one. I had so many 'yes, it's based on a comic!' conversations back in the day. Part of the fandom drama over the film is that a lot of people's first into to him was the film and they glommed onto that... take on him.

[mistressofmuses]

That's true - while I was dating a comic geek at the time (who I think DID give me a brief rundown on "this is okay, but it isn't... Constantine..."), the vast majority of people seemed only minimally aware that it was based on anything. Even the people who DID know it was based on an existing character didn't know enough about said character to say anything about how good/bad/weird an adaptation it was.

I can imagine that causing quite a bit of fandom drama. I don't MIND when different versions of a canon have their own fandoms and their own takes, but it is frustrating as hell when one shiny new incarnation (that's largely incompatible with the more established one/s) overshadows it to such a dramatic degree.

[olivermoss]

I wont see the film, but I am mildly interested to see how things turn out. People are generally less tolerant of 'just Americanize all of it' as a way to produce things.

Back in the day the internet was just so primed to see comics fans as just butthurt gatekeepers. So things played out predictably. These days he's more well known and the bar for adaptions is higher. I am surprised they are taking this risk, but Keanu has wanted to do this again for a long time.

[mistressofmuses]

This is true. The bar for adaptations has been raised a bit, and so has the understanding of how adaptations work. It's probably too much to hope that it won't cause fandom issues, though hopefully it'll be less obnoxious than the attitudes after the first film. I probably won't see the film, though we'll see.