Review of The Crow (1994) by Husai M — 27 Dec 2011

Dark, moody and stylish, this movie will always have a special place in my heart. When I saw this for the first time in high school, it instantly became my favorite movie and it remained that way for several years. In later years, I did myself a favor and read the book. Upon doing this, I came to uneasily realize that the movie simply does not measure up. While its star has faded a bit, it remains a brilliant piece of gothic film making.

The acting is hit and miss (Michael Wincott and Brandon Lee hit, Ernie Hudson and whoever plays the little girl Sarah miss.)The bad portion of the acting is bad enough to make you go 'uuuughhhh...' and seriously detracts from the overall product. Not helping is the fact that Hudson's Officer Albrect is a scrawny white rookie cop who appears in 2 pages of the book, while there isn't even a 'Sarah' in the book whatsoever.

The first half of the movie is so far superior to the second that they almost seem to be from different movies. In the first half, Draven is an animal. He doesn't make friends, he doesn't play guitar, he is there for 1 reason. In the second, it gets bogged down with his previous life relationships and making human connections, which is (again...) just not in the original story. Brilliant urban hell production really makes the grimy and greasy underworld of Detroit feel real.

Unfortunately, this was Lee's last film, and it makes you wonder what the talented young man might have accomplished in his career were it not cut off so tragically. All in all, a pretty poor adaptation of the James O'Barr novel. I would have loved to see Proyas try to render the original story more faithfully, because it could have been absolute perfection. Still, this is a heck of a good film.