The Crow

I have been told in the past by my mother Lena that i have a very good memories of years, especially what happened during the 80´s and 90´s in our own lives plus big events that took place during these time periods. I will admit that some things have been more difficult to remember from the early 80´s but when it comes to the 90´s i can mention quite a lot of things. But not all things that i remember are positive and there is espcially one date in the year of 1993 that i will never forget. I even remember what i did that day when i heard the news on April 1st in 1993. I was watching morning news before going to school that martial art action actor Brandon Lee have been killed while filming his latest film The Crow on set on the night of March 31. When i arived at school this was something everyone was talking about in my class, everyone was really shocked. One of my school friends Mathias went down on the lunch break to the closest super market to buy the Swedish newspaper Expressen so we could read about this horrible tragedy. I remember as we sat down in the school cafeteria we started talking about the roles of Brandon Lee and Mathias mentioned classics such as Showdown In Little Tokyo and Rapid Fire. I had seen both of these films on VHS back in the day and i even owned Showdown In Little Tokyo on VHS from the UK ( since the Swedish VHS version was censored ). After a couple of months we found out that the Swedish ciname date for his last film The Crow was announced and it was November 18 that year. I went to see this film on the premiere weekend in my local town and all of my friends loved this film. The Crow turned out to be something completely different from what we have seen before based on a comic book character. Brandon Lee was brillant as the character Eric Draven and the film felt very epic with beautiful city scenes and dark images. Director Alex Proyas delivered a film that not only looked really good but worked really well as an action film. After this film we had several years of different sequels and even a TV series with martial arts action actor Mark Dacascos. The sequels were not good but the TV series was ok at least. After many years there was a buzz in Hollywood about doing a remake. In one way i wasn´t surprised but it didn´t feel like we needed one. Not only because the legacy of Brandon Lee but also because that film was meant to be left alone as it is. But here we are in 2024 with the new The Crow remake starring Bill Skarsgård as Eric Draven. 

At a rehab center for addicts we meet Eric Draven ( Bill Skarsgård ), a young man who is not popular at all and pretty much spend most time on his own. The new rehab patient Shelly ( FKA Twigs ) find herself falling in love with Eric as she not only find him fascinating but also his dark poetry and paintings. They are slowly building a relationhip where nothing can tear them apart. One day while spending time together Shelly finds out people from her past are visiting the rehab center to get her, Eric understand that her life might be in danger. They both escape the facility and make it to the city. Unfortunately crime lord Vincent Roeg ( Danny Houston ) knows how to locate people with the right connection and find them both. Roeg´s men kill them both but Eric wakes up in another world where he meets Cronos ( Sami Bouajila ) who tells him he is in a purgatory-style halfway house where he have been given a chance to get Shelly back to life. He must revenge those who killed her or it won´t work. Eric have no other option than to revenge her death to rebuild a future with the love of his life.

I personally don´t have a problem with a remake as long as it is done in a professional way with great performances and a solid story. It depends on what category the remake belongs to and there are actually remakes that turned out to be better than i expected ( especially the 2003 horror remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a film i revisit now and then still to this day ). When it comes to this latest modern version of The Crow you might think that they would be respectful to the original fim from 1994 knowing it has a huge fan base worldwide. To be completely honest i have some big issues with this remake and i will get into why i don´t think this remake is not that good. First of all this film have no depth or any similar darkness that surrounded the original film and made it so unique. This film feels more like a Dollarstore copy of The Crow that was just made to look cool for a younger generation. I think what they should have done is at least made an effort to make this film look cool in a more updated version as well as keep the mystery and darkness surrounding the character Eric Draven fascinating or at least interesting. Another detail i feel this film lacks off is very boring dialogue. It is almost as if most actors are just saying what they need to say but without any effort or passion in delivering dialogue. If you have seen the original The Crow film you remember that dialogue was a detail that was important since Brandon Lee actually did deliver dialogue that matched the story so well. Here in this latest The Crow remake it is almost like Bill Skarsgård is just waiting for his coffee break instead of caring about the character. The love story between Eric Draven and Shelly ( played by actress FKA Twigs ) doesn´t feel as deep as i would have liked it to feel. The music selection is quite strange with for example Joy Division when i feel Black Light Burns song Lie would have been a much better choice. Ok so to the small positive things and there are a few action scenes i can accept, especially the Opera scene that´s quite violent and fun to watch. The horror influences could have been much more effective in this film to be honest. We do have legendary actor Danny Huston as the main villain Vincent Roeg, at least hes more fun to watch than most other characters. At the end of the day this is not the remake i was hoping to surprise me. It is boring, pretty lifeless to be honest and nowhere near the quality of the original film. Director Rupert Sanders did give us the entertaining adventure fairytale action film Snow White And The Huntsman in 2012, but his attempt to give The Crow new life for a new generation doesn´t have much to offer. A few action scenes saves this film from getting the lowest rating i have but i still can´t recommend this one. See the original film instead, that´s the best advice i can give at this point.

Rating: DD