Review of The Crow (1994) by Chase D — 09 Jan 2016

The Crow is, although unprofessionally said, pretty badass. The coolness of the atmosphere, the grittiness, the Crow's look and feel - it's all breathtakingly cool to behold, and The Crow does a great job at establishing its own amazing universe - which eventually is ruined by sequels.

Former rock guitarist Eric Draven is killed alongside his fiancee by a gritty assassin gang. A year later, on the night before Halloween, he returns donning black and white makeup and an invincibility powered by a crow. Appropriately calling himself The Crow, Draven goes after his fiancee's killers one by one and catching up with old friends and enemies.

The Crow is amazing. Suggested to me by a friend who considers this one of his favorite films, The Crow opens up so many doors for a triumphant trilogy that is plagued by the sudden death of main actor Brandon Lee and some horrible sequels in later years. The Crow is not a superhero film, despite superpowers - it is a gritty, ultra dark action film with a badass main character, and it perfects what it achieves. The Crow as a character isn't the same old vigilante story or an old superhero story - what makes The Crow so great is that he is practically unstoppable and could work perfectly as a hero or a villain, showing Joker-like charms here and there but also a Batman-like vengeance. Lee's performance as The Crow is so spot on and I would have loved to see more of his work. The world of The Crow is like that of Sin City mixed with a little bit of Gotham City - ultra dark, plagued by crime and inefficient police forces but with a dependable yet flawed vigilante hero to save the day. The Crow lays the foundations for coolness - it's gritty, it goes beyond boundaries, it's grungy - it's perfect. But what about those sequels...maybe I should review them, too...