The Crow: Wicked Prayer

I adore the Crow franchise... I love all the movies and even the T.V show on occasion.

But lets face it, Wicked Prayer was the worst movie to date. The original was fantastic, as they always are, the second (City of Angels) was passable, but Vincent Perez was great as the Crow. Salvation, my second favourite, made use of some amazing young talent... But Wicked Prayer?! No. David Boreanez is a great actor, I think he did an amazing job as Angel in Buffy and Angel, Tara Reid is great in all her other movies... But so miscast in this it's untrue... The new crow, not too bad, but far too underplayed! Where's the angst? The special effects were lousy to say the least and it seemed the director was too interested I'm piling up the body count than making a genuine love/revenge story that the entire crow fiction centres upon.

I honestly have to steer people away, as only the true die-hard fans would want to see it, for the sake of saying they have seen it. Every one else would be put off the movies for good!

Wicked Prayer is a departure from the previous films in that it takes place in an entirely different, unique setting. The third sequel is set in the American Southwest, and the director has created a film with a style more in line with spaghetti westerns than with the other Crow films. This immediately starts the film out on the wrong foot. The concept of a makeup-wearing avenger can be silly if it isn't treated with respect and verisimilitude, and that is a big reason why The Crow: Wicked Prayer falls flat on its face. From the very beginning of the film, when the villains are introduced with jokey subtitles featuring their nicknames and main attributes, Wicked Prayer is just too tongue-in-cheek to be compelling in any way. David Boreanaz's over-the-top, Nicholson-esquire performance doesn't help matters, and Edward Furlong simply doesn't have the acting chops or the charisma to make up for the film's numerous flaws. In the end, he turns out looking more like a mid-90's Smashing Pumpkins fan than a fearsome spirit of vengeance. Add in some embarrassingly bad wire work in the fight scenes and you have one big, bad, direct-to-video disaster. It's not even worth a rental.

I reviewed the best and feel obliged to review "the worst?" (debatable since City of Angels is so boring). This movie is a one time watch train wreck you can't take your eyes off of. It's such a mess and such a bad movie that it is an amusing watch even if only one time. As a Crow sequel or anything even associated with The Crow comics this is a shameful thing to be hidden away from the world and forgotten about but as its own thing, a study in weirdly bad cinema it merits a viewing. From strange casting decisions to ludicrous storylines you will be mesmerized at just how bad it truly is. If you're still on the fence this should get you off of it...... Tara Reid award caliber performance, on of the corniest and most ridiculous villains you'll ever see and a Crow who cannot fight. Still on the fence? THERE IS NO FENCE!!!

Watched The film with an open mind thinking the film wouldn't be that bad!! How wrong i was the plot makes no sense at all, unlike the original film the actors are all wooden and seem to have no sense of what the legacy and style of the Crow is all about. The plot of the graphic novel of the same name is completely different. At Times the film almost seems like a bad parody of the original with some frames lifted directly from it. The problem with all the sequels is the budget is never enough and also James O'Barr doesn't seem to want to have anything do with it. Also why the hell was dennis hopper in it? he popped up from no where acted everyone under the table and then had the worlds crappiest death.

In the year 1993, Brandon Lee created a very memorable, dark & beautiful character: The Crow. The movie, with an exceptional script, smart direction, excellent photography and a brilliant cast, it truly one of my all time favorites. Everything from the look of the film, the characters (especially Lee as the Crow), the phenomenal soundtrack and the overall story of love being stronger than death - I was hooked! I love that film! I saw it in theaters no less than 8 times.

CITY OF ANGELS was a shallow, bastardized attempt to cash in on the success of the first film. In some ways, ANGELS almost ripped-off the original, but in a way that makes me loathe the film. Very disappointing!

SALVATION, the third in the series was...I can't even remember. I saw it once, and do not remember being overwhelmed by it or feeling anything for it.

And now, 2005 brings back the return of The Crow with WICKED PRAYER. Unlike the first three films, this one takes place in the desert, near an Indian reservation. I must admit, I was impressed with the cinematography on this film. The desert scenes, the flashback scenes, all were well done and looked great.

So...what do I think of the film? The direction? The acting? For starters the direction of this film was all too often sloppy. It appeared, more times than not, the film was confused with where it wanted to go. The characters seemed stuck into scenes, with little to no direction, and carried scenes with no skill. Each set up seemed and felt under-rehearsed and underdeveloped.

Edward Furlong is by NO stretch of my imagination an acceptable Crow! Looking too much like a gay goth groupie, instead of a vengeful angel set to make the wrong things right. His costume appeared to steal too much from the original. I felt his performance was bland and tasteless. There was no emotion displayed by his character. I did not feel pity or sorry for him, or what happens to him. I was no convinced that his love was so undying that he could be brought back from the dead. He is no Brandon Lee! I mean, come on: "Quoth the Raven, Nevermore. Motherf**ker!" What kind of crap writing is that? Boreanez is wasted in this film. Though, he has not impressed me much with previous roles such as Adam Carr in VALENTINE, I still feel he is a solid actor and really can pull off the bad guy look. However, in WICKED PRAYER, it never feels like we are 100% sure of what he is doing or why. OK, I get that he is performing a ritual to become a demon or devil, but where did this come from? What is in motivation? World domination? I don't think we will ever know.

Tara Reid....Ugh! And Macy Gray?!?!? And what was up with Dennis Hopper, in what could only be his worst performance.

None of the cast is able to save this mess! Very upsetting to see the series continue to be treated this way. What started out 12 years ago with such an inspiring beginning, is continuing to fall further down the spiral of sequel Hell!