Constantine (HD DVD)

Constantine made my list as one of my favorite films of 2005; just look here, I placed it at numero 2. Yeah, I liked it that much and since owning my HD DVD player I have held off on watching the film only because I didn't want to spoil my viewing of it in HD. Well, that time has come and the release of Constantine on HD DVD also spells the first time Warner Home Video brings us an HD DVD with an HD DVD specific featurette as they debut their "In-Movie Experience," but more on that in a minute.

For those of you still out of the loop as to what Constantine is about, this is a film adaptation of the DC Comics/Vertigo "Hellblazer" graphic novels, which chronicle the exploits of John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) a man charged with the task of battling Hell's demons with hopes of regaining a positive light in the eyes of God in order to make up for his past digressions. When he learns the son of Satan has an eye on a Hell on Earth scenario his task becomes more than he can handle, at least on his own.

I have said it before and I will reiterate my point that the combination of spectacular visuals and special effects in conjunction with a strong supporting cast and Keanu's ability to choose roles that make the most of his wooden acting style are what make this movie great. Music video director Francis Lawrence chose an ambitious feature as his first directorial outing, but I must say his style is right up my alley, as are all the special features on this disc.

The onslaught of special features on this HD DVD are all what was found on the 2-Disc Deluxe Edition DVD, and considering I covered them in my DVD review I will simply point you here if you want to learn about those. In an effort to save you time I can tell you I loved many of them. The making-of featurettes are spectacular and the audio commentary with Lawrence, producer Akiva Goldsman, and writers Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello is well worth a listen, but this is the HD DVD edition and the special HD-only "In-Movie Experience" is far better than any of that as you get it all right along with the movie, let's talk about it.

First off, this is not the first HD DVD to offer this type of special feature. Universal was the first to the market with a feature length parallel video presentation when they released The Bourne Supremacy on HD DVD. The Universal feature was called "Bourne Instant Access" and it was a video feature that ran in the lower right hand corner of the screen as the movie played in the background. The feature ran the complete duration of the film and never changed size or position. It was cool, but nothing compared to what is offered on this disc.

Warner Bros. seems to have fully embraced the idea of HD DVD even though the studio is one of only two studios (Paramount) that has already committed to release both HD DVD and Blu-ray editions of their discs. Oddly enough Universal is the only studio that has commit to HD DVD only, at least to this point, but I expect them to make a Blu-ray announcement some time this year.

Anyway, the Warner "In-Movie Experience" (IME) is what we are talking about and it is definitely far cooler on Constantine than The Bourne Supremacy edition. First off, the one thing I have come to love about the Warner Bros. HD DVD releases is the way they make the fly-in menus a reflection of the film. With Full Metal Jacket it had a military style, Unforgiven was in the style of a western and Phantom of the Opera was elegant. Compare this to Universal's same old/same old and it does add a little to the experience, especially when you combine it with this "In-Movie Experience".

Universal's presentation was in a box in the lower right hand corner that was surrounded by a metallic border, Warner Bros. has given their edition a much cooler look when it comes to Constantine. In style with the film the border is a metallic and grimy green and uses Constantine-style fonts to introduce each speaker. Basically it doesn't feel as out of place. On top of that, the video window moves to different corners of the screen so as not to block the action, a big bonus in my opinion.

You will notice the additional informational value of the IME piece from the very beginning as you will learn that there is an idea of Chas Kramer (LaBeouf) as the subject of another Constantine movie and you will see the original introduction of Angela Dodson (Weisz) as shown and explained using storyboards.

Suffice to say I was highly impressed with the Warner IME feature, it definitely proves that HD has a lot to offer. Actually, I was highly impressed with this disc on a whole. Not only does it offer the features found on two standard DVDs, it also includes the high definition video, improved audio and the HD-exclusive IME feature. Honestly, as a fan of this picture and HD itself I couldn't ask for much more.