Loosetooth Reviews: Constantine: City of Demons (2018)

Before 2005 no one outside of comic geekdom knew who John Constantine was, then in the wake of X-Men's success every comic property worth their salt was getting the movie treatment. But not even a post-Matrix Keanu Reeves could get this franchise running. Then the MCU movies started making some serious coin and the bigwigs started making everything about tights and capes once more.

Skip forward to 2012 and The CW launches Arrow, a TV show based on DC's Green Arrow comic book character. Following the series success more shows were commissioned, The Flash, *Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. Meanwhile over at NBC a Constantine series goes into production, unfortunately it doesn't get the same level of succes, cancelled after a single season.

Post-cancellation Matt Ryan reprised the role in both Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow, later becoming a series regular in Legends.

In 2017 Ryan would play the character yet again, although a different version, in the animated film Justice League Dark the seventh film in the DC Animated Movie Universe. The film spawned the City of Demons web series, which confusingly was shown on The CW's website despite not being linked to their shows.

City of Demons is constructed from the web series with new linking material, much like 2017's Vixen: The Movie, which actually was part of the Arrowverse.

The story goes something like this: Constantine's old pal Chas asks for his friend's help to save his daughter who finds herself in mystery coma. The pair travel to Los Angeles where it transpires a demon is the cause, he wants Constantine to eliminate five other demons muscling in on his turf, in return he'll set the girl free. As you can imagine hilarity ensues.

Even though it started as a web series the quality we've come to expect from DC animations is still here, even if it is much bloodier than usual. While the film does feel episodic it's more akin to a detective novel, this clue led to A and this one to B etc. unlike Vixen, which was two web series stuck together and had two distinct halves.

The only real gripe with the film is the use of 'British' swearing. There are certain phrases that get used by Constantine and Chas to convey to American audiences that these guys aren't from around here. British people however don't speak like that. Nobody's used the insult Knobhead since the mid-nineties, and even then that was more in sitcoms.

Have of you seen Constantine: City of Demons? How does it stack up to the other entries in the DC Animated Universe? Let me know in the comments below.