Rightly so, our first thought when we remember The Crow by Alex Proyas is the tragic death of Brandon Lee during filming. Killed at the age of 28 by a gun that should not have been loaded, the charismatic actor delivers a memorable performance in the now cult classic. The 1994 film also has a sublime visual style thanks in part to the use of shadows and light filtered by rain.
Thirty years later, Rupert Sanders (Ghost in the Shell, Snow White and the Huntsman) offers a new version of the original film. Because it had sequels, but without Brandon Lee’s character, Eric Draven, reincarnated as Raven.
This time, Bill Skarsgård (It, Barbarian) does indeed play Eric, while singer FKA Twigs plays his love interest, Shelly Webster. These two broken souls become kindred spirits after meeting in a rehabilitation center. The first 40 minutes of The Crow are summed up as a succession of scenes illustrating their deep affection, interspersed with flashbacks that give a vague idea of Eric’s difficult childhood.
Meanwhile, Shelly has been living in fear since Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston) and his pack are on her trail. It turns out that the man with amazing powers is responsible for the death of one of Shelly’s friends and that Shelly has a video of the murder on her phone.
One day, Eric and Shelly are caught and killed. Eric lands in a world between the living and the dead and is given the powers of the Raven, which make him invincible, in order to avenge the death of his beloved. Then begins a carnage that will be interrupted unnecessarily a few times.
The Crow is painful for several reasons. First, its excessive violence. The interminable scene in an opera where a number of security guards are brutally executed is particularly disturbing.
The choreographies are certainly well executed, but they lose all their meaning in this whirlwind of blood and limbs. After Boy Kills World Earlier this year, one wonders if Bill Skarsgård has now had enough of hemoglobin baths.
Next, FKA Twigs’ acting is not up to par. If only she had contributed to the music… Besides, no effort seems to have been made to match the quality of the soundtrack from the 1994 film.
The plot of this one was simple, but effective. Here, Zach Baylin and William Schneider weigh it down for no reason and offer nothing that allows us to become attached to the characters or their quest. Even the love story, as passionate as it is, leaves one indifferent.
Steve Annis’s cinematography is the only real positive, but it doesn’t have as much soul as the remarkable cinematography of Dariusz Wolski, who became a close collaborator of Ridley Scott.
In fact, there lies the problem of The Crow 2024: It doesn’t have the soul of the original. It would have been better if we left it alone.
In the room
Horror drama
The Crow
(VF: The Raven)
Rupert Sanders
With Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston
1:51