Review of The Crow: Salvation (2000) by Mark N — 28 Mar 2012

This is the beginning of the decline of the series, in my opinion. After growing to love City of Angels, I really wanted to like this movie. I was incredibly anxious for it's release. it was leaked online that it was being released into a limited number of theaters before it was released nationwide.

As it turned out, it was released into one theater in Spokane, WA and did not do well. So the theatrical release was scrapped altogether and the studio began preparing it as a straight-to-video release.

When I watched it, I could see why. It wasn't horrible, but it definitely wasn't good. I had seen Eric Mabius in other films before and though he had the talent to pull it off. I knew Kirsten Dunst for Interview with the Vampire and little else.

The script and production were terrible. The feel to the characters, especially the villains was all wrong too. My main criticism, however, is that they strayed to far from their source material. This film was based on a Crow novel, written some time earlier by Poppy Z.

Brite, called The Crow: Lazarus Heart. The filmmakers apparently didn't have the gut to make a movie about the first gay crow. The book was about I man, named Jared Poe (much better name than Alex Corvis), whose lover was killed by a delusional serial killer.

Jared was convicted for the crime and went to prison where he was murdered by another inmate. He returned to take vengeance on the corrupt legal officials who framed him for the crime and then the murderer of his partner.

Maybe they figured Kirsten Dunst was not up to play the transgendered identical twin sister of the murdered partner. I don't know, but I loved the book and would have loved to see that movie. I bet it would have drawn a lot more attention too.

The first gay action hero. But they didn't do that and here we are.