Rupert Sanders is the latest director to take on The Crow franchise. While his film isn’t the worst in the series, it fails to live up to the original revenge caper.

A New Eric

Brandon Lee famously portrayed Eric Draven in the original The Crow. His portrayal and subsequent tragic death on set have made the original film something of a cult classic. Bill Skarsgard takes up the mantle this time and while his character is fine, it loses most of the heart Lee gave to tEric Draven.

The Crow tells a much different story than the original film it shares a name with. There are similar plot points but the entire narrative has shifted from one of merely revenge to one of addiction and fighting demons. The original Crow was light on plot, delivering as little story as possible to get the audience into the action. This time around, the film lingers much longer in the days leading up to the ill-fated lover’s death. While the sentiment and desire to turn the female character into a stronger character is noble, the result is a film that meanders for an hour and a half before it takes off.

Plot

The Crow begins with our leads Eric and Shelly meeting at a rehabilitation center. Both characters are heavy drug users with a checkered past. Shelly is on the run from a supernatural being who uses an otherworldly power of persuasion to kill his foes. Eric tries but fails to save her but is given one more chance in the form of a soul-carrying crow. Eric comes back to the land of the living with a mission of revenge and a body that can’t be killed.

While the original film opened with Eric and Shelly’s death, 2024’s The Crow spends a lot of time with these characters before their death. We get a better sense of their relationship and the hardships they faced in life. The film spends a lot of time diving into their drug use and love for one another. It’s not a terrible idea to get to know these characters a little better, but it results in a movie that doesn’t really have a plot for the first hour. There is a story of an evil powerful being happening tangentially to our leads, but the majority of the film’s first act is just these two doing drugs and having sex. There is no real conflict until about an hour later when they are finally killed and Eric is brought back for revenge.

A Dish Best Served Cold

The Crow also totally changes the stakes of the original film. Brandon Lee’s Eric was simply on a mission for revenge, killing every person who wronged him and Shelly like a slasher in a horror movie. Skarsgard’s Eric has an arc much more aligned with modern-day Marvel heroes. The film plays like a modern superhero origin story with Eric learning his powers, struggling, and then finally harnessing his true powers. On paper, this works but in practice, we get twenty minutes of great action that’s preceded by an hour and a half of Eric sadly walking in the rain in TikTok fashion trends.

The major conceit that changes this film from the original is Eric now can save Shelly. In the first film, their fates were sealed. Eric was only brought back to earth to take care of unfinished business. Here the stakes are raised and by killing those who killed Shelly, Eric can bring her back to life. It’s a fine choice but one that adds a message of false hope to a story built out of grief.

Source Material

The Crow is based on a comic book series of the same name written by James O’Barr. James wrote The Crow after his fiancee was killed by a reckless drunk driver. This tragedy was the inspiration for Eric Draven and more tragedy would befall The Crow franchise with Brandon Lee’s onset death in 1993. All of this tragedy surrounding the series makes the comic and the original film a cathartic experience for those who experience grief. The story is not about saving the ones you love, it’s about retribution. That’s why the narrative shift doesn’t fit tonally with the original material.

The Crow reboot also dives deep into Eric and Shelly’s drug use. The beginning of the film makes small notes of it but by the end of the film, it seems to be the main driving theme. This is driven home by the film’s ambiguous ending that leaves the audience trying to contextual the previous 2 hours. The way drug use is handled here isn’t subtle or done with any levity. Leading to the film’s ending being more confounding than satisfying.

Gothic Love

Choosing to tell a different story in The Crow universe isn’t something new. There have been multiple films that tell adjacent stories but this film was billed as a reboot. Instead of rebooting the original story, The Crow tries to say something entirely different. It isn’t a film about revenge, it’s a film about addiction and the demons we all face. There is a love story but the goal isn’t dealing with loss, it’s trying to reverse it. The Crow tries its hand at telling a new story but ultimately it doesn’t realize any of its themes. There is a killer soundtrack, great action sequences, and a dark moody aesthetic. But it was all done better in the original. The Crow is an okay film and hopefully the last we see of this character.