The Crow

We spoke of our love for the first adaptation of The Crow way back in episode 123 of the podcast, a beloved cult classic that oozed style, which was followed by a rapidly plummeting quality of sequels and a TV series.  Decades on from that original film, a new take on the character has finally arrived, after an arduous production fraught with delays.  Suffice to say that on the run-up to the film, the internet chatter has been very negative, commenting on every aspect of the glimpses we saw through set pics and trailers on why this film will be an abomination.   Still, I always like to approach a new take on a property I love with an open mind, and believe that there isn’t any harm in attempting a new adaptation of something for a new audience.  Settling in for the screening, I decided to take it at face value, on its own merits, and avoid comparing it to the Brandon Lee starring film.

The film opens with a segment lifted straight out the pages of the original comic run, seeing Eric Draven as a child struggling to free his horse from the barbed wire cutting into its skin, and showing us the strained family environment he was raised into.  Cut to present day, and the years of childhood trauma have resulted in him residing in an institute for troubled youth.  There he keeps himself isolated from others, until a young woman with troubles of her own, Shelley, enters his world.  The pair are drawn together, finding connection through their traumas, and sparking a pure love between them.  However, Shelley’s troubles are a direct threat as she is hiding from a crime lord, Roeg, who is after her as she holds a video implicating his crimes, and when Roeg’s right hand operative, Marian, comes seeking Shelley, she and Eric flee the institute and go into hiding.  But they don’t stay hidden long and are attacked and killed by Roeg’s men.  Eric finds himself drawn into an afterlife full of crows, where he finds a guide who tells him that he can return to life to exact revenge and free Shelley’s soul from eternal damnation.   Entering the real world again, with undying abilities, Eric begins tracking down those who damned Shelley.

Rupert Sanders, who gave us Snow White and the Huntsman and Ghost In The Shell, infuses the look of the film with a dirty, yet beautiful aesthetic.  The constantly rainwashed streets of the real world, contrasted by the surreal railroad warehouse of the afterlife, lend the film its own tone, and a sombre presence.  Into this arena, Bill Skarsgard and FKA Twigs bring some joy and beauty, and make for a captivating partnering over the first act.  Danny Huston, as the crime lord Vincent Roeg, brings the usual menacing game that always makes him perfect for these types of roles.  The action is brutal and bloody, with some stylistic touches that will remind audiences of the John Wick films, but the film isn’t just action – indeed, for the majority of the first half we get a slower paced affair, with even Eric’s first return to our plane of existence not going the way you would expect.  But the last half ramps up to a frenetic fury of ultraviolence, which will please many crowds, even if it does seem tonally imbalanced to the previous acts.

And therein lies the issues here – there’s nothing inherently wrong about the individual aspects of The Crow, and indeed fans of the graphic novel origins will love some of the creative and story choices taken throughout – but it does feel a little uneven in tone to such a degree that it does make it hard trying to work out whether this is a sombre musing on lost love, or a gung-ho action flick with style.  It leaves a resonance of studio interference, and the delays in production and release suggested as much.  Whilst the aforementioned central cast are all perfectly placed, the support around them are immediately un-memorable, and a few characters that could have been more interesting are underdeveloped.

But it isn’t a bad film – more a misguided one.  Maybe they shouldn’t have opted for retelling the story of Eric and Shelley, and instead drawn from the pantheon of other Crow tales that have been told over the last few decades instead.  By restricting it to what has already been told on screen, it primarily limits itself, whilst also undoing many people’s ideas of who those characters are.  That said, I did enjoy it somewhat, and never found myself bored or unengaged with what was happening.  Is it a film I will watch again?  Maybe not, but it did pass some time and I didn’t feel like I’d wasted the hours on something bad.

The Crow isn’t terrible, but it isn’t strong enough to be considered a success.  Seemingly lacking confidence in the story it tries to tell, whilst Skarsgard and Twigs try their hardest to make you care, in the end you just walk away sated, but not satisfied.