Review of The Crow (1994) by Catherine S — 19 Jun 2011

An excellent piece in film making, The Crow has the perfect combination of dark, gritty violence as well as a good story line with a likeable protagonist.

The Crow stars the late Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, a rock star planning to marry his fiancee on Halloween night. Things take a tragic turn when he and his fiancee are brutally murdered the night before by a gang of arsonists. One year later, a crow resurrects Draven as he goes on a quest to kill the four men who beat and raped his fiancee. Donning black leather, white clown makeup, and black face paint, Draven becomes the vigilante The Crow.

This movie is beautifully shot. The dark colors are edgy and gritty, and unlike other movies like Ninja Assassin, the dark setting doesn't blind us from the action sequences but instead highlights them. All of the actors play their parts wonderfully, but I give most kudos to Brandon Lee. Not only is he a complete bad-ass, but he also is a great actor. While the idea for The Crow isn't anything new or original, the direction they took with it makes it its own. Also, while the death scenes are gruesome in The Crow, they don't show too much. Unlike the untastefully gory death scenes in most movies nowadays, The Crow gives you just enough that you know what happened but don't have to sit through all the fake blood and gore.

Really, my only problem with The Crow is that this is Brandon Lee's last film performance. For those of you who do not know, while on set shooting an action sequence a dummy bullet (bullets without gunpowder often used for scenes showing guns being loaded) had been previously lodged into the gun. When they shot the gun, the dummy bullet caused a lethal wound that caused him to die soon after. It's unfortunate that this event occurred and it would've been great to see how far his career would've flown (for lack of a better word) if this hadn't happened.

So yes, I really liked The Crow. If you haven't seen it, go check it out for a great movie going experience. (Real rating: 97%).