Pet Peeve

After spending the afternoon refreshing myself on the Hellblazer graphic novels, I got in the mood to watch the movie Constantine, which is loosely based on that comic series. This brings me to one of my pet peeves: television shows and movies should not mess with the appearance of characters described in literary vehicles. Take this situation for example. Here's how John Constantine is supposed to look, according to the original source documents, the comics in which he is featured:



He was modeled after Sting, for pete's sake. Now, here's how he looks in the movie:



Keanu Reeves does not look like Sting. Further, the comic version wears a brown trenchcoat and is English. The movie version wears a black trenchcoat and is American.

I actually like the movie, mind you, and like KR's performance in the film, but someone like James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) would have been a better physical fit for the role and he does a mean British accent. But what do they have him doing? Making audiobooks for the Harry Dresden novels. Dresden is 6 1/2 feet tall and dark-haired. Although I can't see Marsters while he is reading the book, just knowing he is average height and peroxide blonde is enough to make me simmer. they do have the vampire connection - Marsters played one on TV and Harry's brother is a vampire, but it is simply not enough. It is anarchy, I tell you. Pure anarchy...