The Crow

I'll refrain from spoilers in case you actually want to watch this. But if you're a fan of the original Crow by Alex Proyas or a fan of the comics. You will hate this movie, even if you're looking for a decent action movie, or a solid plot.

All that falls out the window with this film. I will try to summarize as best I can. They completely changed the original plot, practically all of it that's in the original movie or comics is zoinked into oblivion.

This film is the epitome of taking from people who wrote really good stories and thinking "hey we can do that but our way, and better". Well actually, you can't. And your way is awful.

The first thirty minutes is not only random, confusing and useless. But it tries us to get to like our main couple as some head over heels deeply in love romantic saga. When actually it's two drug addicts who escape rehab together to immediately hook up and do more drugs, after knowing each other a few days. For almost what seems like 10 minutes of the film we get to enjoy some spectacle of random making out, sex, drugs and corny high school level cringe dialogue thrown in.

They're talking about how much they love each other after a week together? What? What's shown isn't love or romance, it's infatuation and it doesn't make us connect with these characters.

The plot continues to muddle along to no man's land to the point where if you watched the original or the comics, you're just waiting for them to get killed so at least you can watch some bloody revenge action.

Nope. What you saw in the trailer is basically what you get. About 20 minutes of this movie is action. And I must admit, those sequences are actually good, and really violent. If they could have done more of that, maybe this could have been around a 5.

They tried to give The Crow a villain, with some "powers" of his own. I'll leave it at that, but none of this is explained so it feels forced and random. They could have flushed it out, but they wanted to spend the first forty minutes focusing on this cringy hook up session trying to convince us how deeply in love these two are. Look at them laughing half naked smoking pot, aren't they soooo in love? Ummm...sure if I was a 15 year old girl I'd think that...

There is some good cinematography but it's ruined by the "Jared Leto Joker"-esque Crow they give us. And just makes you disappointed he couldn't be depicted as his original comic look or the 1994 film version.

There is a fight sequence at the end, which saves the movie from being a 2/10. It's brutal, violent, cinematic and well executed. Despite some of the bad guys walking into melee range after shooting a guy who clearly isn't dying. But the scenes so cool I'm let it slide with brownie points.

Of course if you're going to have bad or mediocre plot, it can be saved by great cinematography and fantastic fight scenes. Now this film succeeds at this, but only does it for about twenty minutes worth....

That's not enough, if they wanted to do this, with this plot, they should of cut out 80% of that plot and just made this movie a 1hr 20 minuets of violence. Basically John Wick but with off brand Crow.

The problem is they didn't think this plot was bad...(Well that's not the only problem but you know what I mean.)

I had a feeling the film would be mediocre from the trailer, but I went in with an open mind hoping to be happily surprised. This wasn't even mediocre it was just a bad film.

Horrible remake. I gave it 3 stars for Skarsgard's performance. I thought he did a good job of a pure but tortured soul. Nothing else redeeming in this movie. The director did a very poor job. He chose to concentrate on artsy film takes of graphic violence that left no room for the essence of the storyline. This director was way too in love with himself to get the story translated to the screen.

The original movie with Brandon Lee was before its time. It captured the story of pure love of good souls who are so wrongly violated that it needed to be avenged.

Save your money and watch the original which stands up to the trial of time. Just like all good movies.

The Crow (2024) is a haphazardly put-together mess that just doesn't have the style and class the original film had. The whole film feels incoherent and lacks any real momentum. Some stilted acting, even though Bill Skarsgård tries his best, and the writing doesn't help. That being said, it does have a couple of great action sequences, especially the opera house scene, so that's something. Overall, the movie defines mediocrity-maybe not even that. If you really want to watch a Bill Skarsgård action movie, check out the criminally underrated "Boy Kills World" that movie was a blast and a half. This one, though, is just a disappointing mess-and not even the fun kind.

The trailer for this looked terrific, and it made me want to see it as soon as I could, but it is a case of here we go again, a great looking trailer, a disappointing film.

I'll start off with the positives, and there are a few of them. It looks stunning, this is one beautiful looking film, so dramatic, the costumes, the birds, the action sequences, and that place beyond.

The music is terrific, it worked so well, we even get some Enya, a voice made for moody and atmospheric scenes.

Eric certainly looks the part, and I can imagine plenty of youngsters with pictures of him on their walls, the tattooed, hipster looks cool, and there's no denying that Bill Skarsgård plays the part very, very well, but something was missing. I didn't care about Eric, or his fate, or his romance.

As soon as Eric got his powers, it was essentially game over, the villain of the piece was powerless to stop his dark eye shadowed up adversary.

Danny Huston was good, and I loved seeing Josette Simon in a big movie release, a talented actress who's been around for so long, yet never seems to age.

Atmospheric and moody, but ultimately lacking in soul and substance.

5/10.

This is the story of a relationship so powerful, so intense, that it brings a man back from the brink of death to revenge his fallen loved one. Yet, here, in this new iteration of the story the relationship between Eric and Shelly lacks so much chemistry and intensity that about halfway into the film I'd almost forgotten it happened.

The script is stilted and clichéd. The performances are wooden and feel massively dialled in. Most of the action is poorly choreographed and doesn't work well. On the plus side some of the effects, and occasional slices of action, do work decently, but that's about it.

I really like Bill Skarsgård, but I do not like this at all. The director has said it's not a remake, or a sequel, and that it he 'wanted the evolution of Eric to The Crow to be fresh but rooted in the graphic novel. Now, I haven't read the graphic novels, but I'm sure those that have will make their voices heard.

Overall? It's a lacklustre movie, with poorly written dialogue, uneasy performances and almost zero chemistry between two people who are supposed to have an incredible 'love eternal'. The saving grace is the soundtrack which does include some awesome music. 2/5...I'll never watch it again...