Review of The Crow (1994) by Michael M — 11 Sep 2016

The Crow is my all time favorite comic book, so for years I hesitated to try the movie. Finally, I decided to give it a try, and...yeah, it's not as good as the comic. The comic is much darker, much more violent, told in a more unconventional and artistically focused manner, has a greater sense of poetry, and shows a bizarre beauty in contrast to the often downright sadistic material. It's a dark and twisted revenge story that is quite painful to read, but is powerful and unforgettable.

The movie on the other seems to be trying to be an R-rated version of Tim Burton's Batman. It's a bit sillier, loses a lot of the beauty and poetry, and seems to play out like a Hot Topic wet dream. But...y'know what? That's still pretty enjoyable. If I compare it to the comic, a lot of it really bothers me. However, if I look at it as a movie on it's own, it's pretty god damn awesome. It's gritty and visually interesting, Lee's performance as Eric Draven is very good and at times darkly comical, the action scenes are fun, and it still has enough of the elements that made the comic so great. So yeah, even if it isn't as good as the comic, it's still a damn good movie..