Movie Review: ‘The Crow’

Movie Review: The Crow: Here’s a little secret: this writer has never been a big fan of the original 1994 movie The Crow. At the time, it seemed depressing, gratuitous, and largely a case of style over substance, with simplistic characters and a reactionary, nihilistic narrative. But the death of lead actor Brandon Lee — who was accidentally shot on set and later succumbed to his injuries just days before filming ended — put a vaguely somber spin on the film that had to be one man. A robot not to experience. Lee is great despite the movie surrounding him, but there is also a ghostly aura around his onscreen presence that permeates the entire movie and takes the otherwise ho-hum revenge thriller into a different light that has made it a cult classic.

Fairly or not, by taking the mystery and legend of Lee out of the equation, like the new remake of ‘The Crow’, you have nothing but a ho-hum revenge thriller. Despite the best efforts of star Bill Skarsgård (who cornered the market on movie monsters with Pennywise the dancing clown in ‘It’ and his next title turn in ‘Nosferatu’) and a few inspired moments, this long-overdue director Rupert Sanders (‘Snow White and the Huntsman’) development reboot is dull, derivative and predictable, lacking energy from both its direction, its style and its cast.

Story and direction

The new ‘Crow’, written by Zach Balin and William Schneider, keeps the bones of the story (based on the original 1989 graphic novel by James O’Barr) but adds a complex new set-up to take us through the main plot. Skarsgård’s Eric Draven is in a rehab facility in an obscure location (it appears to be out in the relatively sunny countryside, while the unnamed town where the primary action takes place is perpetually dark and rainy) for rather obscure reasons (a flashback reveals that he saw a treasure animal dies in infancy) when he meets fellow resident Shelly (FKA Twigs), a musician who allowed herself to be arrested for drug possession and sent to the facility to avoid a darker fate.

This is where ‘The Crow’ 2024 differs greatly from the 1994 film: while the villains in that movie were local Detroit thugs (yes, that movie was set in Detroit; the new movie was supposed to be set in an American city but was shot in Germany. and in Prague) who wanted to take over the apartment building where Eric and Shelly make their home, the antagonist here is Vincent Rogge (a jaded Danny Huston), apparently immortal because of a deal he made with the Devil years ago. . In that deal a demonic voice is used to whisper into people’s ears and they either kill themselves or someone close, thus corrupting their souls and sending them to Hell. Shelly is thus used by Roag to kill someone, thus hurting her, but she has the whole thing on videotape (though how he’ll bring her down is frustratingly unclear).

Movie Review: The Crow

It’s an unnecessarily complicated back story that diminishes Eric’s power to become a supernatural being himself. Which, of course, eventually happens. He and Shelly easily escape rehab just ahead of Rogue’s gang of goons (led by ‘Foundation’ star Laura Burn, who deserves better) and incredibly passive montages of hanging out with their friends at the lake or making sweet love and/or music. enjoy (The timeline of this film is really unclear). But Roig’s minions catch up with them again in Eric’s apartment, suffocating them both in a gruesome sequence as they watch each other die.

Eric is sent to a gray CG afterlife that looks like the outside of an abandoned railyard, where the ghostly mentor Kronos (Sami Boajila) provides the necessary exposition to move the film forward. Eric is dead, but he can return to the land of the living and avenge Shelly’s death, or “right the wrongs.” As long as his love for Shelly remains “pure,” his physical body can heal from any wound. And he may even save his damned soul – but at a very high price.

From there, it becomes a standard stalk-and-kill scenario, albeit with plenty of CG blood (god, how we miss caro syrup sometimes) and some hilarious deaths, especially in an elaborate battle at the opera house that Eric leaves stands among a pile of severed limbs and heads (two of which he inadvertently dispatches in hilarious fashion). But while Eric had to deal with archetypal villains like Michael Wincott’s Top Dollar and his mole Myka (Bai Ling) in 1994, his enemies here are a bunch of generic brittle, vaguely Eastern European-looking security guys who seem sick. There is an infinite supply. The title bird, a kind of spirit guide in the first film, is a kind of tag in this one.

There’s an overall lack of suspense, energy or tension in the proceedings, as everyone knows they’re going through some predictable motion. The final confrontation between Eric and Rogue, after almost everyone is killed, is as disappointingly flat as everything else on display here. The original film’s goth aesthetic and alternative/metal soundtrack have been replaced with generalized grey-brown merch and some actually pretty cool songs from the likes of Falls, Enya and Traitors. But the overall style that made the first film a cultural touchstone of its time cannot be channeled in the same way.

cast

We really enjoyed Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the dancing clown in the ‘It’ movies, as well as his turns in films like ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ and ‘Barbarian’. And while it’s unfair to judge him against Brandon Lee, he’s an integral part of the ‘Crow’ legacy and a dominant presence in the original film. It is impossible to ignore the fact that while Lee was able to transcend the material, Skarsgård could not. He gives it his best shot, but the emotional undercurrents simply aren’t there, while his patchwork look of random tattoos, disheveled hair and disheveled clothes do nothing to build his character.

There’s also no chemistry between him and FKA Twigs, who gives a dead-eyed, monotone performance in the pivotal role. Some scenes between Twiggs and Skarsgård are simply silent, as if they have nothing to say to each other, and Twiggs is not a strong enough actor to pull off Shelly. A subplot involving her relationship with her mother (Josette Simon) is largely unexplored and largely forgotten, but based on that we’re not sure Twigs can handle anything too complicated anyway. In a movie that already exists on a purely surface level, the actor needs all the tools he can muster, and the twigs fall short.

Danny Huston mostly phones in his villainous role as Rogue, a character whose own back story and methods are confusing to say the least. Is it a vampire? A monster? Both? It is never quite clear. Laura Burn has been a compelling presence (her work as the android Demerzel on ‘Foundation’ is one of that series’ strong points) but is underutilized, while the rest of the cast doesn’t get enough to stand out here.

Final thoughts

This is IP mining at best, an attempt to cash in on a brand name that still has some resonance after 30 years (a string of weak sequels kept it in the public eye for a while), and exploitation at worst. But above all, it’s modest: ‘The Crow’ has a very tame feel that comes from watching direct-to-video thrillers. Whatever aura Brandon Lee brought to the original is gone, and even the love story at the heart of the movie pales in comparison.

The original 1994 ‘The Crow’ is a testament to a promising actor and career lost tragically too soon, as well as a snapshot of a defining moment in youth culture. Lacking any of those aspects, 2024’s ‘The Crow’ is a testament to when story material is revived and rebooted without wondering if it should have been there in the first place.

‘The Crow’ gets 3 out of 10 stars.

Bill Skarsgård stars in the iconic role of Crow in this modern reimagining of James O’Barr’s original graphic novel. Soulmate Eric (Skarsgård) and… read the plot

What is the plot of ‘The Crow’?

Damaged souls Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelley (FKA Twigs) fall deeply in love, only to be met with Shelley’s dark past and demonic benefactors. After brutally murdering a couple, Eric is sent back from the realm of the dead to “right the wrongs”—even if it means paying the price for the one thing he wants most.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Crow’?

• Bill Skarsgård as Eric
• FKA Twigs as Shelly
• Danny Huston as Vincent Rogge
• Josette Simon as Sophia
• Laura Burn as Marion
• Sami Buajila as Kronos
• Isabella Wei as ZD
• Jordan Bolger as an opportunity