By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Starring Bill Skarsgård, FKA twigs and Danny Huston
Directed by Rupert Sanders
Written by Zach Baylin and William Schneider
Lionsgate
In the interest of introducing its themes of death, loss and grief, the new version of THE CROW opens with a flashback to its hero Eric as a child, vainly attempting to save a horse from mortal wounds. For an unnecessary remake like this one, following a trio of underachieving sequels to the 1994 original, a dead horse may not be the best image to lead off with.
THE CROW 2024 has the feeling of a movie whose backers felt they had to see it through to fruition simply because it’s been in development for so long. It’s telling that a few dozen producers and executive producers are listed in the opening credits, and that two of the most significant, Edward R. Pressman and Samuel Hadida, are no longer with us. Over the last couple of decades, directors including Stephen Norrington, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Corin Hardy have been attached to the project, and potential stars have ranged from Bradley Cooper to Jason Momoa. One of the few things the final product has gotten right is the casting of Bill Skarsgård, who in movies from IT to BOY KILLS WORLD has shown his aptness for heightened genre roles, and does more for this film than it does for him.
Director Rupert Sanders and screenwriters Zach Baylin and William Schneider have wreaked many changes from the Alex Proyas-directed, Brandon Lee-starring ’94 film and the James O’Barr comics that inspired it, none of them improvements. As previously seen, the murders of Eric and his lady love Shelly, which Eric rises from the grave to avenge, are a jolting opening shock, the motive quickly established later. But in 21st-century cinema, elaborate backstory and explanation are everything, so a lengthy first act is devoted to Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (singer FKA twigs) finding love after meeting in a rehab center that resembles some kind of hi-tech science lab. These two troubled souls fall for each other about as easily as they escape from the facility (which is to say very), but they’re not free and clear; this time, Shelly has a direct connection to lead villain Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston), with an incriminating cell-phone video as the MacGuffin.
Even with Roeg and his underlings after them, though, Eric and Shelly don’t try very hard to stay hidden and inconspicuous, joining friends for a public swim outing, hanging at a nightclub, etc. As such, it actually takes a surprising amount of time for the baddies to catch up with and dispatch the couple, whereupon Eric finds himself in a netherworld where a guy named Kronos (Sami Bouajila) exists entirely to explain the rules of resurrection to him and the audience. Would that so much exposition was applied to Roeg, who’s imbued with vaguely established supernatural powers, including the ability to send people to hell by whispering to them. He’s not clearly defined enough to be a forceful antagonist, and as opposed to the vivid villains in Proyas’ film, Roeg is surrounded by henchpeople who, like the movie they’re in, are all surface and no substance. Thus there’s not much satisfaction when resurrected Eric begins pursuing and slaying them.
This particularly holds true during a lengthy latecoming setpiece in which Eric engages in massive gun- and swordplay with a large group of suited bodyguards in the corridors and staircases of an opera house (where the main auditorium apparently has excellent soundproofing). There are a couple of clever gore gags here, but Eric’s foes are so anonymous that it’s simply an orgy of impersonal bloodletting, which seems to have resulted from a studio note reading, “More like JOHN WICK!” And where you could identify with the gratification of vengeance achieved by Lee’s Eric, Skarsgård’s spends a lot of this CROW confused and scared by his situation and his newfound ability to survive any physical punishment. It’s a different approach to this protagonist, to be sure, but not an effective one.
Skarsgård plays what he’s given with all the emotion and gravitas he can muster, and he has nice chemistry with Twigs, who brings some charm to Shelly. There’s only so much they can do to elevate a film that’s busy yet underheated, lacking the dark visual poetry of its predecessor as well as its ruthless, straightforward storytelling. The plotting is muddled and certain characters, like a young piano-playing protégé of Roeg’s, are introduced and built up only to disappear completely midway through the movie. And the finale alters the meaning and message of the first CROW–again, not for the better. Now that this CROW has finally come to the end of its long gestation, perhaps this concept and Eric can be allowed to rest in peace.
