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The Crow Movie Review

The Crow is a 1994 superhero film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee. It’s a movie that’s more interesting for its behind the scenes story than for its actual in film plot.

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“Believe me, nothing is trivial“

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It follows a rock musician who is revived to avenge the rape and murder of his fiancée, as well as his own death. I found the plot very weak. The fact that we do not get an origin story and explanation for how he survived and got his powers is actually great as it made it feel like a fairy tale, but still the movie is so thinly plotted with not a lot to it, both thematically and in terms of memorable plot developments.

The same should definitely be said for the characters. They are all very weakly developed and all are very uninteresting. The protagonist is powerful visually speaking and a memorable presence, but there’s not much to him deep inside. They included some moving moments because of the actor’s death, but those are still fleeting.

Yes, the movie is first and foremost famous for the behind-the-scenes tragedy that saw Brandon Lee get killed while filming a scene including bullets. It was a senseless death due to negligence and it’s most certainly tragic. As the son of Bruce Lee, he was a very physical actor who could have gone to do more such action movies.

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However, in terms of acting abilities, he is only okay, definitely not great in any shape or form. I do realize how this is a sensitive issue which many would not touch at all, but I do continue to believe that movies where an actor died while or close to filming end up benefiting from it in terms of acceptance and critical reception.

I say that because The Crow is only fascinating as a memorial in a way to Brandon Lee. His real life story and his character’s journey in the movie aligned so well, in fact, that it becomes rather creepy and undeniably intriguing to think about. But there’s not much to it other than that.

It’s a movie that is very much of its time. It came out in 1994 and it felt like it with all the rock music, the grungy look to its characters, the crime elements and violent fights. It’s so 90s that it’s timely and incredibly dated when watched nowadays. Of course, one can say that this idiosyncrasy makes it an original experience, but the enjoyment of it utterly depends upon one’s own tastes. I personally dislike the aforementioned elements, so the flick did not appeal to me.

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The Crow is technically strong. It’s a cheap B-movie in a way, but still its cinematography is undoubtedly great, and although emphasizing on rain and darkness overwhelmingly, that still lead to a very atmospheric, authentic picture. The acting performances and the direction left a lot to be desired, but some moments are moving, some of the dialogue is memorable and a couple of its scenes are definitely a lot of fun.

The quality of a certain movie should not be confused with the behind-the-scenes story of it. That’s basically what happened with The Crow. The senseless death due to negligence of the main actor Brandon Lee coupled with the art imitating life aspect in the story of the protagonist being similar to his own death made the movie darkly fascinating, but the plot itself remains thin, the characterization is poor and the movie’s only memorable and fun in a couple of sequences. It has an authentic atmosphere to it, but otherwise it’s so 90s in its numerous dated elements that time has not been kind to it whatsoever.

My Rating – 3