im an old fan of keanu’s from way back in the pump up the volume days, but I found this movie eerie!! but maybe that feeling was enhanced because i was already nervous about doing my video presentation!!! i thought the special effects were used well – they enhanced the movie rather than take away from it. But i can see where visual effects could sometimes be not so good. When the visual effects become the stars of the movie, they can takeaway from the actors (characters) and the story line, I think they can also mean that actors don’t need to be as good any more, a bit like lip synching in singing, where as long as the person looks the part the computer editing can do the rest! but i also think that this can work the other way to, whereby it can make actors better, by having to act in a scene – possibly talking to aliens or dodging shooting bullets – with the things that arent really there would be hard. On another positive note for special effects, pictures speak 1000 words!! meaning that a special effect can show in an instant what would take heaps of dialogue to explain, like in this movie when the girl is upside down on the roof, i instantly knew she was possessed, or at least evil!! overall i think special effects generally are used to enhance the pleasure of watching movies

Here is a clip of special effects used in Constantine

Image from: http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/25/MPW-12589

Movie from: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuezxna_5ms