Yar, you be here: The Crow > Customer Reviews

The Crow Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 51 Reviews)

The Crow's popularity arguably stems from the tragic death of Brandon Lee only days before filming was completed. I remember when the film first came out - people flocked to see it because they had heard of the trick photography used to complete the scenes they still needed Brandon's character for. People were curious to see if it was noticeable.

The actual crow adds much appeal to a seemingly dull storyline. I have to agree with another reviewer that this bird was the second best actor in the film besides Brandon. Where did they find that clever bird?

The DVD I saw was an early release of this film and the transfer was appalling. I am sure fans of the film will be pleased to hear that a new DVD with excellent transfer, sound quality and extras is now available.

Definitely good, but...
Okay, this is a definitely good movie. Brandon Lee was the perfect man for the role of the Crow, and of course, his untimely death lent an air of even deeper tragedy to the story. The supporting cast is pretty good too - T-Bird, Top Dollar, Funboy, all fit their roles excellently. And what's more, the soundtrack is filled with great _original_ material from some of the best alternative bands ever.

So why doesn't this movie deserve the full 5 stars? Simply put, it isn't as good as the graphic novel. The graphic novel is a masterpiece of perversity and pain. In the graphic novel, there is none of that stuff about how if the crow was hurt, Eric would lose his super powers. The book does not rely on creating drama by putting the character's life in danger (especially by means of such a cheeky device) - it creates it by the utterly unbearable despair that permeates every page. We know Eric is going to win, but that doesn't keep us from fervently wishing that he'll find his inner peace.

The movie doesn't have that. In addition to the fact that the screenwriters added that bit, they took several other "creative liberties": for instance, in the book, Top Dollar was killed fairly early on, very ignominiously and without the climactic showdown bit. In the movie, he's not only the head of a whole crime ring, but he didn't even participate in the original murders of Eric and Shelly. Another "creative liberty" was the addition of Top Dollar's sister/lover, Myca, who was not present in the book at all. Her presence adds some New-Age/mysticism stuff that really has no place at all in the storyline. (Hey, we should thank our lucky stars an editor rejected the ORIGINAL screenplay, which featured a Chinese sorcerer named Lao.)

There were several other scenes that I thought the book did far better than the movie. For instance, in the book, Eric does not have a showdown with Funboy - he throws Darla (or "Sandy" in the book) out, sits down on a chair and has himself a nice metaphysical discussion with the junkie. (Trust me, it's MUCH more effective than it sounds.) Of course, there were numerous other scenes left out (the Jones Transfer episode, Skank's death, which was COMPLETELY different and far more horrific in the book), etc. This is partially because you can only cram so much into ninety minutes; and while the movie was very faithful to the book (for a movie), one can't help but feel that it simplified some of the book's subtleties and replaced some of its horrifically cruel, but beautiful moments with more-or-less generic action. It has plenty of its own merits, but if you liked the movie a lot, DEFINITELY find the book, as it's darker, more poignant, and generally better at telling the story than the movie. (Brandon Lee did do a great job, though...he will be missed.)

A infamous cult reference
An ineludible reference in every Neo-Goth kid's wardrobe, "The Crow" is one of those movies that favor style over substance. Its success is, however undeniable: after all, it spwaned two sequels and a TV series. It also has to live with a very infamous reputation, since action star Brandon Lee was accidentally killed during the shoot. Now, for the movie, it's a classic tale of love and revenge beyond death. A rock-musician called Eric Draven (no pun intended, or is it?) is brutally killed, along with his girlfriend, by a pack of hooligans. One year later, whoever is in charge in the next world grants him a chance to come back as a living dead super-hero and take a not less brutal revenge on the runamuckers who had their number. All this he does with a fellow crow on his shoulders. The rest of the plot is superflous: in the midst of all this mayhem are the local cops who had little to do against the band of thugs that hold the city hostage, so, in the end, the Crow is avenging not only the death of himself and his girl, but all deaths.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan, but if you are, then you shouldn't even blink in front of this edition. Since it takes 2 discs, the picture and sound quality is the best you're going to find, as well as tons of stuff about the making of this comic-book-like film. Of course, a lot of the material is dedicated to the unfortunate demise of Brandon Lee, who happened to die in very similar conditions to those of his father.

"The Crow" is probably not one of my favorite films, but it does have an undeniable cult audience. It picked up the pace set by Tim Burton's "Batman" and took it to the next level. However, even to these people I would recommend director Alex Proya's much superior "Dark City", though it's not one of my favorite films either, it does raises more questions than this super-hero flick.