John Constantine (Reeves) is a troubled man. If it weren't enough that he's smoking himself to death, he has a terrible "gift" that allows him to see the world of angels and demons--and to send disobedient demons back where they belong. Then he meets Angela (Weisz), another tortured soul whose twin sister has just committed suicide. Or has she? Together John and Angela discover a battle waging for the human soul, and set out to do something about it.

It's always nice to see a film that dares to tackle spiritual subject matter, even if it's treated like an excuse for Matrix-like alternate-reality action set pieces. This is jam-packed with intriguing ideas and nutty theories that make it pleasingly brainy, even if the script (and more glaringly the editing) constantly throw any sense of story logic out in lieu of putting something deeply cool-looking up on the screen. It's almost like the dialog doesn't really matter, as key lines of plot exposition are completely muffled.

Reeves is of course great at this kind of thing--brooding, measured, maintaining a sardonic distance and elegantly gliding through the action like a dancer. Weisz and LaBeouf are fine in the thankless roles as, respectively, the sceptical woman in distress and the clueless sidekick who's more than he seems. While it's Swinton (as an angel), Rossdale (a demon) and Stormare (the devil himself) who have the most fun. And Hounsou is also terrific as a kind of gatekeeper to the underworld. Or at least an underworld nightclub. Or something.

In the end, you wish the filmmakers had bothered to clarify what the, quite literally, hell is actually going on here. Despite feeling far too long, it's so underexplained and vague that no matter how great it looks, or how fascinating the characters and situations are, we always feel like outsiders looking in.