"The Crow" is a piece of trash. It's a gothic style comic book adaptation that - on paper - is certainly more interesting than the high gloss mainstream super heroes filling the theater screens in the past few years. Anyways the film did not really leave me very impressed. A bad script, superficial characters and most of all the fact that the makers were shying away from a clear dedication to pulp determine the failure of this movie.
The film doesn't take itself too serious but seriously enough to suggest that we should actually care about what is going on. It knows it is silly, as lots of moments prove, but I wished it would have really embraced its silliness. It is in the end not resolute or brave enough to do so. "The Crow" is a dark revenge fantasy that is visually quite exciting. The gloomy and rainy setting naturally creates an atmospheric vibe. When the protagonist picks up an electric guitar and plays it on the roofs of the dark city there is a feeling of acceptance but there are many reasons why this feeling doesn't sustain.
The main problem here is that, like its hero, the film wanders in the twilight. It is an emotional dead zone and the film is not able to find a proper tone. It is not over the top enough to really entertain but it's also not sincere enough to create honest emotions. That said I also would have liked to see a little more bloodshed. Some of the more violent scenes felt to me like I was watching a cut-version of the film. I sincerely think they should have gone down the comedic road and make it a super stylized action-trash ride. But the film places itself in the middle between trash and sincere revenge drama and whenever it tries to strike a serious note it completely misses the target. The truth is that I could not care less about any of the characters, for several reasons.
First of all the plot. For the plot, there basically isn't any. The film starts off showing the aftermath of a crime. There is hardly any exposition. The first five minutes tell you everything you have to know. A couple is murdered by some sleazy mobsters. The woman named Shelly, played by Sofia Shinas, is raped and suffers quite a long time in hospital until she dies. To bring justice to the attackers the restless soul of her husband Eric Draven is revived from the dead by a crow one year after the cruel events. The bird becomes his companion and functions as his connection between underworld and reality.
When Eric returns to their old appartment we get the usual flashbacks to remember us of the tragic incident. But it is so brief that it has no weight at all. It's really just there because it has to be. Afterwards Eric starts to track down and kill all of the four gangsters one after another. The fact that as a reborn he apparantly is almost invulnerable makes the chase quite boring actually even though for the final battle the bad guys figured out a way to steal Eric's supernatural power. That brings us to the next issue and that is the showdown that really feels like an add-on. The big boss is not very convincing and stays uninvolved in the background until the final minutes. His motivation is uncertain til the very end.
Talking of add-ons, there is a subplot involving a young girl called Sarah who is living in the streets while her mother appears to be a drug addicted prostitute. She was a friend of the murdered couple but her role is totally unnecessary and towards the end reveals itself as a pretty tedious plot device to get the final action sequence going. Another character that lacks significance is a cop played by Earnie Hudson. He supports Draven the raven despite the trouble he has with his chief lieutenant.
None of the these characters are very interesting and the villains are particularly shallow. The dialog is quite cheesy sometimes and most of the jokes don't work.
The only really sad, affecting thing about the film is that Brandon Lee - the actor playing the main character - was injured in an accident on set and actually lost his life. I hope his soul rests in peace.
His performance interestingly reminded me a little bit of Heath Ledger's insanity as the joker in the Dark Knight. The difference is that the clown comes across much more tangible, complex and real whilst the crow is indeed a clown figure ... and there is nothing worse than an unfunny clown.
"The Crow", that was quite a hit back in the 90s, should have stayed in its grave.
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