Image courtesy of getwallpapers.com
Hello, everyone. Long time, no see. I realize that, again, I haven’t been posting much this year, but I’ve been trying my best to make up for that. I had several ideas for what to come back with, but I decided that with the holiday featured here, I figured, “Why not come back with this?”, and so I am. I also figured it’d be the perfect time to do it, since it’d not only be around the holiday itself, but also since this year marks the 25th Anniversary of the movie. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my review of one of the best comic book movies out there (and one that isn’t from Marvel nor DC, I should add), and that is… The Crow.
The story follows Eric Draven, a rock star who was supposed to get married on Halloween. Unfortunately, the night before, known as Devil’s Night (an infamous occasion in Detroit), a gang broke into their apartment and trashed the place, resulting in both he and his fiancée Shelly Webster dead, with Shelly having also been beaten and raped.
However, legend has it that if the conditions of your death are bad enough to where your soul can’t be at peace, a crow will bring your soul back to right the wrongs. One year after he and Shelly were killed, a crow taps on Eric’s grave, bringing him back. Upon revival, Eric goes after all of the gang members, picking them off one by one to reach the boss responsible for everything that happened.
What Worked: The acting across the board is fantastic. Brandon Lee (Bruce’s son), who tragically passed away during filming as a result of an accident on set, gives a phenomenal performance as Eric Draven. You feel his pain to where you’re rooting for him immediately to take the gang down, and every time he goes after one of the members, it’s satisfying to see them get what’s coming to them.
Brandon Lee has some great, and quite emotional, scenes with Rochelle Davis, who plays Sarah, a friend of Eric and Shelly. Sarah provides narration that bookends the movie, and the moment her opening narration ends, you’re in for a gratifying experience.
Despite the dark tone and the Gothic look for Detroit, the movie does have some humorous moments with Sergeant Albrecht, played by Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame. He has a snarky personality, but the humor mainly comes from banter in scenes with Sarah or Eric, and, on at least one occasion, both. There are two scenes where it’s particularly funny. One is where Eric pops in and Albrecht still has his hat on, which Eric notices almost immediately. The other is basically where there’s a Batman-Gordon dynamic between Eric and Albrecht, where Albrecht turns around and Eric is gone, similar to how Batman does it after he’s done speaking with Commissioner Gordon.
Speaking of which, there are several times where you can tell this likely influenced The Dark Knight. There’s that dynamic, a scene where Eric disappears and Albrecht turns to Sarah, telling her, “He does that a lot.” (similar to how Batman did it with Gordon and Harvey Dent, to which Gordon tells Dent, “He does that.”), and perhaps the most famous one is a scene involving a meeting.
This movie also has some of the most despicable villains you’ll ever see. The gang members (Tin-Tin, Funboy, T-Bird, and Skank) may be psychotic, but the most evil of them all is their boss Top Dollar, played by Michael Wincott (Treasure Planet*). He is just insane, and his voice is menacing. Then you get to his henchman, Grange, played by Tony Todd (Final Destination), whose voice is deep enough to intimidate anyone. Every time I see him, he’s awesome, and it holds true here.
Everyone else is really good, even if they’re not in it that much, aside from maybe David Patrick Kelly (Sully from Commando) as T-Bird and Angel David as Skank, who get the most screentime of the four gang members.
In addition to the performances, especially that of Brandon Lee, where this movie really stands out is the visual style, along with the surprising amount of emotion for a revenge movie. It may be grim and gritty, but it also has some excellent cinematography from Dariusz Wolski, who would go on to shoot the first four installments of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, as well as a few of Sir Ridley Scott’s more recent projects like Prometheus, The Martian, and Alien: Covenant. It accompanies Alex Proyas’s direction perfectly, which I will cover momentarily.
As if certain scenes between Eric and Sarah weren’t emotional enough, the score from Graeme Revell (known for scoring the Riddick franchise, Daredevil, and Sin City, among numerous others) really brings it home, namely the theme. Aside from Daredevil, this has probably his best theme. I will say this, though: Something else that the two movies share is that the soundtrack is awesome, featuring songs from Rage Against the Machine, The Cure, and even Nine Inch Nails.
When it’s not emotional, the movie delivers great action sequences. The best ones are Eric’s fight with Tin-Tin, the aforementioned meeting scene, and the finale.
The excitement and emotion are very well-balanced through the direction of Alex Proyas, who brings a clear sense of bleakness to his style, which is evident in the look of his follow-up, Dark City, the disaster-centric plot of Knowing, and to an extent, the tone of I, Robot. However, I still think this is his best movie.
The premise of this movie is also great, and it has some of the best story structure you can see. From the first frame, you know how dark the setting is, you’re instantly engaged in the story, and you care about the characters. You want to root for the hero throughout, and you can’t wait for the villains to be taken down. It may be fast-paced, but not once does it feel rushed. It flows very naturally, and as a result, the ending and all of the emotional and exciting story beats building up to it are earned.
Overall: The Crow is not only a great comic book movie, but it’s a great movie period that needs to be seen at least once, even if the dark and gritty approach isn’t your thing overall. While it does have a dark appearance, it’s not overly dark, as it does have its share of humor. It has just the right amount of emotional depth for both the story and characters mixed in with some fantastic action. It’s very well shot, well directed, and especially well acted. It makes it all the more sad that a star died doing what he loved while making this, because Brandon Lee really could have had his big break here, and gone on to have many more defining roles for years to come, establishing a legacy of his own like his father did. Because of what happened, it’s nothing short of a miracle that they were able to finish it and release it, but because they did, everyone was better for it, being able to experience something awesome. Although its star didn’t really get to have a legacy, the movie itself certainly has, becoming a huge hit and a cult classic, and for good reason: It rightfully earned it.
I remembered really liking this movie the last time I saw it, but having seen it again, both for myself and for this review, it ended up being even better than I remembered. Words cannot describe how much I love this movie.
If you haven’t seen it, be prepared for some heavy stuff, but once you do see it, I guarantee that you’ll be glad you did.
*Criminally underrated animated movie, by the way, and I cannot wait to get to that, along with a couple other ones I feel similarly about (one of which was also scored by Graeme Revell).