The Crow was more than just a financial failure, it completely lacked any understanding of what make the property great initially.
Ever hear someone say “No one hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans?” Passion for intellectual property can manifest in many ways, but it’s often drenched in a bit of pessimism. This happens anytime a new entry is made in a franchise that is beloved and has a rabid fanbase. And with The Crow having one fantastic initial entry and a bunch of dull follow-ups, it’s even easier to understand any kind of trepidation regarding new material. Whether it’s the Brandon Lee tragedy or just the 90s grunge of it all, the magic formula has always felt like it can not be recreated. We’ve gotten the one good one, and a whole lot of mediocrity to follow. Yet why is that? This Crow fan is going to try and break it down.
This is where I’m going to get into some SPOILERS for The Crow (2024) so if you’re desperate to see the film, then you may have to look away. We’re going to look into why it just didn’t work.
So for this 2024 entry, the filmmakers decided to move away from the story of the original film and instead adapt the James O’Barr graphic novel. At least, that’s what they say. I’m not sure that’s really true because the graphic novel follows much closer to the 94 film, complete with T-Bird’s gang and young Sherri (Sarah in the film). Because outside of the basic concept of a man coming back to life to avenge his slain girlfriend, there’s not much about the new film that is similar. So in that regard, its lack of connection to the original is sort of a good thing. But why the hell did it need to be called The Crow?
Remember how tragic the event of Eric and Shelly’s death are? Their tortuous deaths are so brutal, so prolonged, that it is the catalyst for Eric being brought back to life. You know what it isn’t? A brief moment where they’re both choked out with plastic bags and quickly offed. It’s so underwhelming and lacking in any sort of impact. Sarah’s line from the original makes it very clear: “People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.”
Yet this murder doesn’t seem any worse than the murder we’ve already seen in the film to that point. It’s a cleanup job done by henchmen. Hell, the actual crow feels like an absolute afterthought. If you took out the crow, it would have zero effect on the story or how it unfolds. I’d say that’s a pretty big problem when your movie is called The Crow. Gone is the concept of Devil’s Night; a night where gangs set fire to the city of Detroit. Shelly and Eric are innocent victims, making their deaths all the more tragic. Yet here, they’re both targeted by an evil dude’s people because Shelly has a videotape that will implicate the immortal demon man? Certainly takes away some of the random tragedy of it all.
I think they changed the last names because neither character embodies anything that made Eric Draven and Shelly Martinez what they were. Admittedly, Shelly is more a conduit for Eric’s love, but even that is difficult to land when the characters have only known each other for a couple of days. So I’m not going to rail against FKA Twigs’ version of Shelly. If anything she was quite charming. But it doesn’t get rid of the fact that we witness the entirety of their relationship unfold before our very eyes on screen. It’s hard to really get invested in their love. Then add the vanilla way in which they’re killed, and I hardly think they’re deserving of some big revenge escapade.
This is where the next issue lies: Eric just isn’t an intriguing character. Yes, we could talk for days about Brandon Lee’s wonderful performance as Eric Draven. Yet, outside of the performance, the character himself is actually great, with his infectious energy and command of the situation. Skarsgård’s Eric is bumbling through his revenge mission, lacking in any sort of coolness or drive. Hell, he gets completely wasted by gangmembers, to the point that he has to renegotiate his deal, and magically comes back suddenly able to kick ass. And that’s not to say that Skarsgård is bad because he’s not. But there’s nothing meaty on the page for him to latch onto. Rather than a badass on a mission for revenge, he looks like a SoundCloud rapper fumbling his way through an action sequence.
Rupert Sanders certainly knows how to provide some interesting visuals, and I won’t deny there being some really cool shots. The warehouse-looking structure was visually intriguing, if not a little music video-y. The Crow franchise has always had a supernatural element so I won’t bemoan that part. The Danny Huston character of Vincent Roeg being able to just talk people into killing themselves was…interesting. But there’s not really any setup or proper explanation for what he’s even doing. Sure, I get that he’s sucking the life force out of various women, like he’s a vampire from Lifeforce. But it doesn’t seem to result in much outside of his immortality. Top Dollar felt like a scumbag and Vincent Roeg just seems like a lame vampire.
It’s also frustrating that they didn’t even complete Eric’s story out of the sheer unwarranted hope that they’d be able to make a sequel. He is simply lost in limbo at the end of the film (even though it was explicitly stated that he’d be changing places with Shelly–guess they forgot that). Even Bill Skarsgård has bemoaned the ending saying, “I personally preferred something more definitive.” Me too, Bill. Me too.
It’s hard for a film to succeed when it doesn’t even know what it wants to be. Is this a revenge story? Is it a love story? Is it a weird supernatural action movie? The original is a revenge story with the driving force being love. Eric Draven is a cool character who demands your attention for every moment he’s on screen. Eric (!) is an emo boy in lust with a girl he barely knows, fighting an immortal vampire man. It’s easy to see why fans of the original would be upset at this. And audiences seemed to answer with their wallets. Maybe, like many Star Wars fans, I’m unable to accept anything new in the franchise that doesn’t fit into the mold of what I think makes the series what it is. Because to me, The Crow is a tragic revenge tale, not a meet-cute love story about a SoundCloud rapper taking his girlfriend’s place in Hell.
What did you think of The Crow (2024)? Am I being too harsh? What elements work for you? Let us know in the comments!