Alex Proyas ‘ 1994 version of the The Crow can be accused of a fair number of things, but it certainly can’t be accused of being a boring film. Filming the comic book story of Eric Draven should, by all means, be a licence to have some violent cinematic fun, with its brooding gothic punk imagery and immortal vigilante hero. Rupert Sanders ‘ latest version of The Crow , however, is almost impressively boring.
In this version, Eric Draven ( Bill Skarsgård ) is a troubled youth who meets his true love Shelly (FKA Twigs) when their paths cross at a rehab facility. Shelly is on the run from the demonic Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston), who is doing deals with the Devil to remain immortal. When Shelly and Eric are killed, Eric returns to avenge her and bring her back from the grave.
Sanders has put a fair amount of visible effort into this production, but the pacing is incredibly slow and the leads are a flatline. Skarsgård can act, but he’s given such a dopey bum of a character that even he can’t save it. Twigs is fine as Shelly, but there’s little in the way of chemistry, and obviously she’s not in a lot of the film.
Huston has the menacing presence required for his character, but has no lines to truly flex his evil. The action is often creatively, amusingly brutal, but the obvious use of digital blood and gun flashes robs many scenes of impact and an extended gunfight in the lobby of an opera house that fails to attract any attention strains credulity. Even the visuals and music, with stunning locations in Prague and a nice choice of timeless props and tunes, are weirdly inert.
There’s not a memorable image in the film despite its consistent ’90s gothic aesthetic, and the music simply plays in the background without any seeming connection to what’s on screen. This version of The Crow is poorly edited, poorly paced, poorly written and you won’t care a jot about any of it. It’s not bad enough to laugh at, and it’s hard to even find thirty minutes’ worth of actual entertainment in its turgid two hours, two hours that most assuredly do not fly by.
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