The Crow (2024)
Tragedy is ingrained in the original
1994 film version of The Crow, because, during filming, actor Brandon
Lee was killed in an on-set freak accident involving a prop gun. When the movie
was finished and released, it was clear that Lee would have been a major star
thanks to his charismatic performance in the lead role. The film itself, by the
way, is really damn good and is rightfully considered a classic. So to remake The
Crow or "reimagine" James O'Barr's comic book never felt like a good idea,
but here is it.
At the very least, this new Crow
is its own movie. It has the same "back from the dead for revenge" plot, but it
doesn't have eye-rolling call backs to the original film.
Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) meet at rehab,
then escape and fall in love while doing drugs. This takes up about 30 to 40
minutes of screen time. Thankfully, they do eventually get murdered because
Shelly has a video on her phone showing demonic crime lord Roeg (a bored
looking Danny Huston in yet another villain role) using his supernatural powers
to possess someone to kill.
Eric wakes up in purgatory (?) and is
told by a spirit guide (Sami Bouajita) that he must return to the living world
and kill Roeg in order to save Shelly's soul. A crow is sent back with Eric to
be his guide, but it seems like this bird is playing coy because it doesn't
bring Eric directly to the bad guys. This crow just points Eric to Shelly's
friends and family for information about the villain.
The direction by Rupert Sanders (Snow
White and the Huntsman, the live action Ghost in the Shell) is
lifeless, the pacing is sluggish, and the film is visually bland. The two leads
play unlikable characters and they have zero chemistry.
There is about five minutes or so of
some cool ultraviolent action in the finale as Eric slices up a bunch of middle-aged
henchmen with a katana at an opera house but that's about it. A few
other spurts of action earlier on are poorly shot and edited, so it's hard to
see what exactly is going on.
When Eric finally decides to become an
avenging angel late in the film, he puts on "happy" face makeup but ends up
looking like Great Value Joker. Actually, that what this Crow is—a cheap
imitation.
