Another example were legacies die and audiences are left bereft.

Two escapees from a rehab facility, Eric and Shelly, are murdered. But Eric’s soul returns from the afterlife to seek answers and vengeance.

Director Rupert Sanders doesn’t have a great track record. Snow White and the Huntsman in 2012 and the live action Ghost in the Shell adaptation in 2017 are his biggest titles. Both could certainly be called style-over-substance at best. But his recent attempt at cinematic flair is a practice in utter despair. The Crow is an angry, incompetent piece of drivel.

How did we get here?

Back in 1994, The Crow was released. A comic book adaptation by Alex Proyas, which hit exactly when goth and grunge art movements were at a peak. Lead actor, Brandon Lee (yes, relation to martial arts actor Bruce Lee) tragically died on set. Paramount Studios, who had the film at the time, shuttered it. However, a media investment corporation was created to finish and release the movie. It was brought back to life, much like its story’s hero, and now lives as an iconic 90s symbol. The film stands the test of time, it is stylish and dark, but also full of heart and conviction. It spawned multiple sequels of degrading quality.

In the year 2020, Paramount Studios reclaimed the rights to The Crow movie. Then Lionsgate took it over. Now we have a remake four years later. Funny how that happened…

Starring Bill Skarsgard (who seems to be everywhere just now: John Wick 4, Boy Kills World) FKA twigs (a… musician?) and Danny Huston. The Crow remake is a disaster only a committee could make, and Rupert Sanders is probably the one director who wouldn’t care enough to argue.

The film starts, bafflingly, with Eric Draven as a child. We immediately register that unlike the original movie, this film is going to give us more lore. Yes, this film is the definition of why the phrase “show don’t tell” exists. We also have Shelly, played permanently awkwardly by FKA twigs (a name I don’t understand) with her character given more of a role with a connection to the film’s villain.
Unlike the original, which cuts to the chase, this one drags the audience through a backstory only a sleepwalking writer would be proud of. Sure, the original only has flashbacks for the story’s romantic heart, so there might be scope for expansion. Only here, we get dialogue like:
“What was the first thing you noticed about me?”
“Your aura.”
When a guy says a girl’s aura was the first thing he noticed about her, you know he is lying. The film then portrays “true love” as sex, kissing through curtains, getting high, drunk, and going to clubs. Compare to Brandon Lee’s Eric, who we don’t even get to see conversing with Shelly, the story is so sad. We only see how much he loves her through his commitment and actions in avenging her.

Oh, and our villain is literally a man who… chants devil words into people’s ears and has extended his life by sending innocents to Hell. Wait, what?

The death of mysticism is one of The Crow‘s lesser but prominent crimes. The titular crow barely does anything. Eric doesn’t use the crow’s perception or abilities; he gets updates on his victim’s locations through convenient text messages. Talk about enthralling.
Also, Eric’s target this time is… a man? Who is evil? He’s a businessman? A crime boss? He likes to look at women playing the piano, anyway. So while the original film gives Eric the faces of his killers, and the crow to guide him, the 2024 film says: okay, attack this building. Eric goes on a massive murdering spree to reach “the final boss”; killing security guards that have nothing to do with his or Shelly’s murder. Killing in really grisly and excessive ways. Oh, and no one will be seated as immortal Eric fights… an old white man.

It really feels like a committee said: “Oh yeah, The Crow, that super violent 90s goth movie”, and left it at that. Eric’s character here is a self-harmer, who escapes rehab. He is then seen, at the end of the film, shooting through himself to shoot a guy behind him. What is this screenplay saying? If anything?

The heart is completely missing from this story. It is an angry, poorly structured, and poorly performed experience.

Honestly, there have been so many Crows. In movies, in comics. If this film had simply changed Eric and Shelly’s names to original characters, the film wouldn’t be so badly received. It would still be a bad movie, but it wouldn’t be so aggressively bad.