As we are in an age where apparently every single comic book or superhero property gets a remake, I suppose it was only a matter of time before we came around to another version of The Crow. If you’re a fan of the original, the good news if that you could watch that version again and pretend this one doesn’t exist. The bad news is that if you give this remake a try, you’re likely to be disappointed.
The story focuses on Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelley (FKA Twigs) who meet in a secure rehab facility. Eric is a haunted individual and not liked by the other patients nor the staff (because that’s what the script says, I guess). He and Shelley fall deeply in love after speaking about 5 sentences to each other and then escape from this secure facility by easily cutting off their ankle monitors and climbing out a window. They’re young, in love and about to be very dead. It seems Shelley has a video that the villain (Danny Huston) does not want seen and his henchmen set out to kill them. But because their love is so strong, Eric is resurrected by a crow, and gets a chance at setting things right and saving Shelley.
It could be a decent story, but the way it is presented in this movie makes it all feel so absurd. The writing is very uneven, and the dialogue is clunky at best, downright awful at its worst. The pacing is also quite bad. The story just feels stuck at times, with various things happening on screen but rarely advancing the plot. Eric and Shelley’s death is the major plot point in the movie. That doesn’t happen until almost the halfway point though. I understand that you need to see a bit of Eric and Shelley’s evolving relationship, but it is largely uninteresting (they have a bath together, they do drugs, they get tattoos - yawn). By the time you get to Eric’s resurrection, which is the central part of the story, you’re already bored and losing interest.
The performances don’t help matters either. I normally like Skarsgård and Huston as actors but neither does much to impress here. There is no nuance to Skarsgård’s performance – he is either happy or moody, depending on which part of the movie we’re in, but it is almost exclusively one or the other. And I did not sense any real chemistry with TKA Twigs, making their blossoming relationship even harder to watch.
Huston could be a great villain, but he has little to work with in this movie. His character has made a deal with the devil and now he talks (literally whispers in their ear) people into doing something evil so their soles will go to hell. The movie doesn’t give much background on the character though, and Huston fails to make him menacing in any way. This feels like a missed opportunity as he is the main villain. As portrayed here he is little more than a generic bad guy.
And you could almost get away with all of these problems. It’s an action movie, and if the action is great, you can overlook a lot. But the action is not great. It is raw and visceral at times, with a few gruesome and imaginative deaths. But overall, it’s not very inventive. After his resurrection, Eric can’t be killed. And so, a lot the action sequences are him just getting shot or stabbed multiple times, then returning the favour without a lot of motion involved. There’s none of the kinetic energy that Brandon Lee brought to the character in the original movie. This is more the equivalent of one fighter letting the other tire himself out before landing an easy yet final blow. The action sequences are competent, just not very thrilling. And the final showdown between our hero and villain is as anticlimactic as it gets.
Honestly, there’s not a whole lot that I liked about this movie. The one thing that does stand out are some of the visuals. For the most part, I did like the look of the movie, particularly after Eric is resurrected. The city is dark and gritty, shadows everywhere. It’s the only thing that adds any kind of menace to the film. It never gets used very effectively, but at least it’s something positive.
The Crow should be a story about loss and redemption, justice and vengeance. But all that gets lost in a messy story. There are just too many problems for this movie to work. I’m sure there will be those that really like it, but I think it will be a small group. I’m sure this was intended to be the start of a franchise, but I’m going to guess that won’t happen. But just like Eric, I’m sure the thought of a Crow franchise will be resurrected somewhere down the road. I hope it goes better next time.
Have you seen The Crow? Are you planning to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.