A profoundly stupid horror action movie. WB and DC were clearly trying to follow the success of Hellboy with a Mulder/Scully skeptic/believer dynamic, but Keanu Reeves has neither the swagger of Ron Pearlman or the goofy charm of David Duchovny (I love Keanu but he's best when he's playing a scared nerd not a grissled detective). A lot of wheel spinning around the least interesting theological trappings you could pick, with a weird emphasis on suicide as a rejection of God's love (the movie cannot decide if it's full Catholic or wants to criticize this harsh damnation). I imagine a lot of this is from the comics, but it makes for a pretty tedious and thematically stunted plot.
Tilda Swinton as butch Gabriel is fantastic and squandered by the two scenes she's in. I also like Gavin Rossdale as twink Balthazar, who is the appropriate level of goofy for a movie about a chain smoking demon hunter. The empathis on elaborate special effects makes me think they were meant to be the highlight, but all the best shots are ripped directly from The Mummy and Lord of the Rings which I could be watching instead.
Telling on myself a bit, but you can't have the spear of destiny be a dinky dagger after Evangelion. You have to try harder.
Content warnings: suicide, bugs, torture, burning alive