I have not seen Constantine and I never read the comics upon which they were based. But I thought the least I could do is post this email from a fellow-traveller who disagrees with NRO’s review (see homepage for link):

Dear Mr. Goldberg:
I know you’ve got a little bit of a soft spot for comics and things geeky, and so I was hoping you might take a brief minute, maybe in the Corner, to correct Steve Beard with regards to his review of Constantine. The things he identifies as “comic book”–the cold-war detente between angels and devils, the bet between God and the Devil, the “leaping tall buildings” aspect and worst of all that bloody “holy shotgun”–have nothing to do with the comic Hellblazer, which is generally more informed about Christian doctrine. (When it departs from doctrine, someone diabolic or angelic generally mentions it, and makes a plot point out of it.) There is no “detente” in the comic, the bet is a Hollywood invention, “half-breeds” appear nowhere (and if Gabriel is a half-breed, it begs the question of who isn’t a heavenly half-breed), and Constantine rarely casts a spell that has any effect whatsoever.
The movie was lousy–I don’t know what Beard saw in it–but please don’t let NRO join the rest of the chorus in blaming it on the comics. Just because Hollywood can spoil anything good that it touches doesn’t mean Alan Moore or Garth Ennis deserve such calumny.