Constantine: City of Demons

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Constantine:  City of Demons – 4 out of 5

It was a bit surprising when NBC jumped on the comic book bandwagon and brought forth a series for John Constantine.  It wasn’t surprising that NBC wanted their own comic book series because they are big money makers and I am in no way complaining because I’ve been a fan of comic books nearly my entire life but it was surprising that the network would go with this character.  Based entirely in the realm of the occult, John Constantine is a dark character and one who isn’t entirely virtuous.  Personally, I enjoyed the series but the ratings apparently weren’t good enough and the show came to an end after one season.  This was a huge disappointment for me because I saw its potential and, more importantly, I absolutely loved Matt Ryan’s performance as the titular character.  Thankfully, the CW (which is doing a tremendous job with their Arrowverse) gave the character new life by bringing him in as a guest role on Arrow and now as a series regular on Legends of Tomorrow.  With CW now having their claws wrapped around Constantine, their streaming service released an animated series based on the character and would be an adaptation of the graphic novel All His Engines.  Constantine:  City of Demons isn’t attached to the CW’s Arrowverse but rather connected to DC’s animated universe and it proves to be a damn good addition and that Matt Ryan really is the quintessential performer to play John Constantine.

Matt Ryan is to Constantine as Hugh Jackman is to Wolverine.

While battling with his own history and his own personal demons (sometimes literal demons), John Constantine (Matt Ryan) is approached by his old friend Chas Chandler (Damian O’Hare).  He tells John about how his daughter is in danger as her soul is being held by the demon Beroul (Jim Meskimen), a demon that John and Chas ran afoul of in their youths.  Together, they head to Los Angeles and John finds himself in a battle for the young girl’s soul, a battle that involves internal power struggles between demons and ancient gods.

The ancient god has a look on his face like he just step in dog poop.

While essentially a series on the CW streaming service, City of Demons ends up as a decent movie when the episodes are combined and is a great addition to the animated universe.  Matt Ryan continues to prove why he is the best incarnation of John Constantine and the feature does a great job of balancing dark storytelling with mature themes and compelling action.  However, the feature always seems to skirt a lot of the animation problems that I’ve started to notice in other DC animated films.  Yes, the character designs still all look the same and they don’t venture further than the expected but the growing issue of sloppily integrated 3D animation, thankfully, isn’t here.  Overall, I really enjoyed the film but it is not without some issues that held it back.

"Excuse me but I have a heavy metal album to chant demonically on."

This Constantine adventure is dark—which is how a story involving a man who fights demons and uses dark magic should be.  For the most part, the tone of the tale works but there are moments when it falls into the usual DC trap; the moments where it tries too hard to be mature and gritty.  These parts are few and far between but there are times where they go too far over the line and what you are seeing feels less warranted for the gritty tale and feels more like it is pure gratuity.  Like every other time when DC does this, it ends up making it feel like the product is childish and trying really hard to show what a big boy it is.  Thankfully, this doesn’t happen often and, when it does, I found myself laughing and shaking my head at the nonsense rather than rolling my eyes and finding the whole thing to be an entertainment killer.

Blogger will eventually mark this as "pornographic" and ask me to remove it
but, yes, that is bats flying out of a man's bum.

Constantine:  City of Demons contains the standard level of animation and character design that has become synonymous with DC’s animated films.  The voice acting is great and I love to see Matt Ryan getting to continue on with the character he is perfect for after NBC prematurely got rid of him.  The story is engaging and has the right level of darkness that it needs for it to be entertaining.  Sadly, it does feel long at times but, for the most part, the tale flowed well and is a great addition to the DC animated universe.