Completist Guide to The Crow series (1993-2005) (Part 2)

The Crow: Salvation (2000)
 

So after a failed sequel and a failed TV show, they decided to blindly make another sequel! It sounds like a bit of doomed concept but The Crow had continued in comic books during the late 90s to modest success (we'll get onto those later) and the original film was still selling well on video and dvd. Also, anyone with a knowledge of Dimension studios knows how many DTV sequels they crank out – Hellraiser, Children of the Corn, Mimic to name a few – they'll crank out a sequel to almost anything that sounds violent and horror orientated.

Luckily the film opts to shun the lighter touch that Stairway to Heaven had and again tells a pitch black tale of revenge like the first two films. Unlike the original film and City of Angels, both of which were deliberately stylised pieces of cinema set in undefinable times, Salvation chooses to go for a far more realistic look and grounds the film in the present. 
 

Eric Mabius plays Alex Corvis, a 21 year old about to be sentenced to the electric chair for murdering his girlfriend, something he's repeatedly denied. In the first 10 minutes we see him executed but of course, he's resurrected by a mysterious crow and sets about solving who really killed his girlfriend.

I like what they did here. The writer Chip Johannsen (a TV writer for shows like Millennium) and director Bharat Nalluri (who's directed a lot of glossy British TV shows like Doctor Who and Hustle) recognised they couldn't repeat the exact same formula and the film shows potential in turning Alex's mission of revenge into an investigation rather than straight forward killings. Sadly, it gives too much away too quickly and it's not too long before we know the identity of the killers. 
 

Also, the film's noticably much lower budget than the baroque original, at times it feels too much like a TV movie than a piece of cinema. The production history for this, like all Crow films, was again troubled. It was intended to go to cinemas (I even remember seeing the soundtrack way before the film came out) but the film tested poorly and it was said certain points were confusing. Some reshoots were done but the project was eventually shelved and then released DTV.

Eric Mabius makes a nice fit for Alex and it's a shame he didn't get more leading roles (this probably killed his chances). Kirsten Dunst makes a nice sidekick character as well and the cast of cops is nicely put together – it's good to see Walton Goggins (of The Shield) too, playing his usual racist/sexist/violent cop role. 
 

Once again, we've got a good premise but very average execution (no pun intended... okay maybe it was). It's nice to see the series break away and try something new. This film seems far less in debt to the original than City of Angels was.

Score by Marco Beltrami

Marco Beltrami's score is far less memorable than Graeme Revell's work. It's mostly generic sounding piano that doesn't really have any identity (something Beltrami repeated when taking over scoring duties on Terminator 3). In fact during the film they more often drop in a rock song in lieu of score. Apparently the film was shot for way under budget and the soundtrack department went overboard buying up rock tracks – in this case, check out the soundtrack over the score.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)

And so we come to the most recent Crow film Wicked Prayer, directed by Lance Mungia (director of the almost great Six String Samurai – see earlier review). The first thing that hits you when you look at the front cover is... Edward Furlong?!? Edward Furlong as in the squeeky voiced kid who played John Connor in Terminator 2. Yep, that Edward Furlong.

Wicked Prayer is one long massive misfire of a movie, in almost every department, and it's unsurprising that no sequels or indeed any other Crow paraphernalia has followed it. The story has Furlong play Jimmy Cuervo, a former criminal living in a dusty desert town near an Indian reservation where he's met the love of his life, Lilly. Unsurprisingly, their happiness is cut short when an ex-con Luc Crash (David Boreanaz, Angel from the Buffy TV show), a former friend of Jimmy, and his gang decides to murder them both and take Lily's eyes out as part of some Satanic ritual. Jimmy comes back and... yah dah yah dah yah dah. You get the picture.

Okay, the plot sounds a little bonkers but in the right hands I'm sure it could be okay-ish. The makers have tried to give everything a really fresh spin with the desert setting. Unfortunately, everyone in this picture seems to be at complete cross purposes. There is A LOT of terrible acting. I'm not just talking about one or two actors. Everyone is uniformly terrible. David Boreanaz tries to channel Jack Nicholson's Joker and fails. Edward Furlong still looks like a teenager and isn't intimidating in the slightest. Tara Reid, once again reads his lines like someone who's just learnt to talk. Yuji Okumoto struggles with most of his lines too. Cage wrestler Tito Ortiz comes across more campy than scary. Danny Trejo embarrasses himself towards the end by doing a topless Native American dance (um, pretty sure he's Mexican) that is meant to be very serious and moving but just comes across as a 60 year latino wobbling his man boobs in the desert.

Worst of all is Macy Gray (yep, the singer) who has a tiny role but manages to garbles (and I mean garble) her way through a couple of lines before being shot. Sadly, I couldn't find a clip of her on youtube so you'll have to settle for this one of Dennis Hopper, for completely inexplicable reasons speaking in ebonics...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euor337sqSU

On top of all this terrible acting is terrible directing. Again, like his earlier film Six String Samurai, Mungia can create some great shots – some interesting dream-like shots of Jimmy and Lilly work really well – but the guy cannot structure his shots. For a lot of film it's difficult to tell geographically where everything is. It's something you don't really think about when you watch movies but it's headache-inducing when its missing. With a plot this crazy you need to take the time to tell it coherently.

Now I will forgive the makers a little because they obviously had a very small budget and I'm guessing they didn't get the opportunity to do any reshoots that would have cleared up the story. The Weinsteins, executive producers, are notorious penny-pinchers and it shows here – 90% of the shots of the crow are taken from the previous films. Production history on this again was interesting. Shot in 2003, it didn't arrive on DVD until 2005. Inbetween then a poster was released reading just Wicked Prayer (no mention of the Crow) leading everyone to think that even the producers were ashamed of what they'd made.

Basically there's no way of escaping it, this is a terrible, terrible movie. It's got nothing to do with the fact that I liked the earlier movies, it's just a mess of film. You can't even call it so bad its good.

Score by Jamie Christopherson

You know what? The score to Wicked Prayer by Jamie Christopherson, who's back catalogue is mainly video game work, is actually pretty good. It's miles away from the gothic score by Revell and at times drifts dangerously close to middle of the road hippish Native American muzak but suits the film and shows a glimpse of originality that the film was aiming for. My pick from the album, which I think Jamie gives away for free on his website, is 'Bike Ride' a great little triumphant soaring track.

Comic books

The original book by James O'Barr is a comic book masterpiece that deserves to be placed alongside Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen. Illustrated in black and white and with quite a different plot to the original film it's really worth picking up even if your not a Goth. It's a powerful story, creatively told – for instance, the artwork is deliberately schizophrenic - the happy flashbacks are drawn in a soft focus painting style while the grim present day scenes are pencilled in a rough, scratchy fashion.

The Crow was followed up a series of spin-offs, all four issues – usually with a unique spin. The first Dead Time, details a Civil War soldier returns to take revenge in present day to his reincarnated murderers. Waking Nightmare delves into the world of the yakuza. Flesh and Blood is probably the best of all of them – telling a story of a female federal agent coming back to avenge her own assassination. Least essential of all is the series by Image Comics that came out in the late nineties that tried, similar to Stairway to Heaven, to retell the story of Eric Draven as an on-going series.

Spin off novels

There were also a series of novels written during the late nineties. Again, like the comics these retell the same story with a unique spin. Quoth the Crow is quite a good read, about a writer obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe coming back and the City of Angels novelisation by Chet Williamson gives a good overview of how the original screenplay played out before it was recut by the Weinsteins. And Wicked Prayer by Norman Partridge, which the fourth film loosely based on is a more coherent version of that story. Best of all of them is The Lazarus Heart by Poppy Z Brite, is an utterly bizarre read about gay man who is wrongly sent to the electric chair and comes back to avenge his lovers death that probably served the basis for the third film.

Video games

Only one video game ever got made for The Crow series - City of Angels for the Sega Saturn - and it's a terrible game that regularly tops lists for worst game ever. Similar in fashion to the early Resident Evil games, it's all fixed perspective but rather than shoot your enemies you beat them up. Something which is pretty difficult to do if the camera angle isn't right (and it frequently isn't).

Future

At the time of writing Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) has been announced as director of the new Crow film (very likely a remake) with Bradley Cooper apparently negotiating for the lead role. Should be interesting...

Completist Guide to The Crow series (1993-2005) (Part 1)

The Crow (1994)

There's little to write about The Crow that hasn't been written before. So much focus has been placed on the tragic death of lead actor Brandon Lee, shot by a faulty blank bullet, that the actual film is rarely viewed without putting it in this context. At times, it feels like the film is just a whirlpool of tragedy both real and fictitious. The original comic book was written by James O'Barr following the death of his fiancee at the hands of a drunk driver, it's oft quoted that this was his motivation for writing the book – an aching need to see justice performed.

I think everyone knows the plot of The Crow by now. Brandon Lee plays Eric Draven a rock musician who is murdered along with his fiancee by a gang of utterly vile ruthless thugs with absolutely no redeeming features. One year later he is brought back to life to take down the thugs for good being guided by a large black crow. Essentially, it's Death Wish played out on a stylish Gothic version of Detroit.

The look of this film is stunning. Everything is just so rich without ever coming across as cartoonish. There's a lot of great miniature work as well, with shots of the crow flying over the city. I like that director Alex Proyas didn't just use real aerial shots of Detroit at night, he wanted the city to be a character itself. Also, much like Tim Burton's Batman the film strives for a sort of timeless look and feel.

Brandon Lee is great in the lead role. It's a shame that we didn't get more films from him because this, and his earlier work, show that he had a genuine charisma that would have propelled him to a-list status had he lived. Michael Wincott is also brilliant as Top Dollar, the lead villain. Both actors really get to cut loose playing their respective roles.

The story only vaguely follows the plot of the original comic. A fair bit was changed. The comic is, if you can picture it, even more graphic and dark than the film. I think it's nice that film interprets the mood and puts its own spin on things. Eric isn't a rock star in the comic and he doesn't duel a top a cathedral with Top Dollar.

Reportedly the script had to be reworked following Lee's death but I don't think all that much was changed from the shooting script. The most obvious bit where he's missing is when he returns to his apartment after rises from the grave, everything's shot in first person POV.

All in all, The Crow is a solid film and deserves to be remembered a seminal film.

Score by Graeme Revell

I'm not going to talk about the soundtracks for each of these films just the scores. The soundtracks always seemed like a bit of random afterthought, collecting some popular rock/grunge songs of the time and sticking them on a CD. The Score though, by Graeme Revell, I do want to talk about. It's a brilliant almost iconic score, perfectly capturing the melancholic tone of the film and without it the film wouldn't be the same.

Classic quote:
Eric Draven: Can't rain all the time...

The Crow: City of Angels (1996)

Where to go when your lead actor (and the fictional character he played) are dead? “There is another.” That was the tag line they put on the poster for City of Angels. I've sort of got a soft spot for this film because it came out around the time I was really getting into comic books. Every time I went to my local comic shop the place was plastered with posters and merchandise for this film.

Proyas didn't come back for the sequel and the reins were passed to Tim Pope, a british music video director. The story picks up with Sarah, Eric's teenage friend, several years later now living in an almost desolated Los Angeles as a tattoo artist. The city is run by Judah Earl, a vicious drug king who orders the execution of an innocent man and his son. Again, one year later the man, Ashe, comes back to kill the gang who killed him. Sarah helps him along the way being somewhat psychically linked.

Once again, and this becomes a recurring theme in all the Crow films, the production was troubled somewhat. The original script by David Goyer (who would go on to script the Blade series and Batman Begins) had a oddly downbeat ending that was filmed but the producers looking to end the film on a more upbeat note and fit the same structure as the original re-edited it. This in turn backfired when fans and critics called the film a shallow rehash of the original.

Now this film is a failure (and it showed at the box office) but at the same time it's a very interesting failure. There's a lot it does right. Pope gives the film a great visual. Again, he uses miniatures for the city and blankets all his sets in a claustrophobic yellow haze. French actor Vincent Perez does an over the top performance as Ashe that sort of works in a baroque way. You can tell at time he's struggling with the dialogue.

Iggy Pop plays one of the gang members and, as should be expected, gives a crazed performance. There's a great scene where he's sitting on a motorcycle and sees Ashe at the other end and starts yelling “You think I'm afraid” over and over until it almost sounds like he's singing it.

The real problem lies in the attempt to tie it in with the sequel. Sarah really has no reason to be in the film. I appreciate when they carry over characters between films but in this case there's no more story to tell. No one left the original film thinking “Man, I wonder what happens to that teenage girl.”

Also, as is often the case with the Weinsteins, this film suffered from studio interference and it seems as though the funding on the special effects were cut short. The final sequence particularly has some appalling CGI. It seems this happened with a lot of the Crow films, the funding was cut suddenly the editor had to put out a rough cut rather than a polished movie.

One thing a lot of people have a problem with how perverse this film is. But when comparing it back to the original comic it isn't a massive leap. Pope has a great style and it's a shame he retreated back to music videos after this. He really knows how to create compelling images such as when Ashe first rises from the water and the twisted Day of the Dead parade. This is a bleak and strange film that deserves viewing at least once.

Score by Graeme Revell

Revell returned to do the score for City of Angels and he keeps a lot of the motifs of the original film. In general though the score is filled more with an earthy tribal sound that fits pretty well with the oppressive tone of the film. He also does a nice reworking of the central Crow theme as a song called 'Believe in Angels' with Heather Nova doing vocals which isn't as bad as it sounds on paper.

Classic quote:
Ashe Corven: Do you know what they call a gathering of crows? Curve? A murder. A murder of crows. Think about it.

The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (TV series 1998)

Stairway to Heaven is a real curio in the Crow canon. Following the disappointing box office of City of Angels the decision was made to take try and turn the Crow myth into a weekly TV series. Stairway only lasted one season before it was cancelled, though not due to lack of audience, apparently it was down to Universal television buying out Polygram productions and not having faith in the show.

The series, created by Bryce Zabel who also did the X-Files rip-off Dark Skies, retells the story of Eric Draven from the original movie but makes a number of changes in both story and tone to fit the TV audience. Eric is still murdered along with his fiancee but rather than return to murder his killers, he comes back just to “see them brought to justice” (ie. arrested) and then continues to hang around solving other peoples' problems until he can be let into heaven or whatever. The plot of the episodes mostly play out along the lines of The Incredible Hulk or Highway to Heaven.

I've got to admit it's quite strange that they chose such a dark violent film to base this TV series off, but then again, it's not unheard of Robocop, one of the most violent films ever was turned into a kid friend show in the early 90s, as was Highlander. But in this case they've had to make so many changes that it only superficially resembles The Crow. For example, Eric's iconic face irony clown make up is now magical thing that appears on his face when he gets angry (read: massive similarities to Incredible Hulk TV show). At all other times he just looks like a regular guy not a tortured undead vigilante. Also, his fiancee Shelly, rather than being a figure only shown in flashback, is regularly featured in the show, shown to be in Limbo waiting for Eric (in the show Limbo's represented as an ordinary looking forest, shot with a purple filter).

Mark Dacascos is given the poison chalice of taking on Brandon Lee's iconic role. He's actually not a bad fit being that he has a vague resemblance of Lee and has a similarly disarming demeanour. Strangely, the series decides to make Draven not only a rock musician but also an highly proficient martial artist. It's just one of a number of strangely off beat details that never really cohere. Dacascos is a great martial artist though (check out Drive (1997) to see his best work) and the series make a good choice of bringing back a couple of the actors from that film – John Pyper-Ferguson does a good job of channelling Michael Wincott as Top Dollar and Kadeem Hardison plays the Skull Cowboy (a figure from the original comic that was cut from the film).

As I said this isn't a mini series with a complex plot, it's a syndicated TV show so each episode basically stands alone. Frequently Draven teams up with Detective Albrecht (Marc Gomes taking over from Ernie Hudson) to solve a crime or help someone out. It's formulaic but not completely unenjoyable. The episodes are breezy and energetic but rarely memorable.
The show was shot in Canada, like a lot of shows at the time, and everything's quite flatly shot, a complete world away from the stylish original film. There's also some very bizarre episodes such as 'The People vs Eric Draven' where the undead Eric is arrested and put on trial for the suspected murder of his fiancee or 'Never Say Die' where a group of Russian mobsters unleash the spirit of Rasputin. One last thing I've got to get off my chest is why the hell did they call it Stairway to Heaven I get the Zeppelin reference but that is one of the cheesiest titles I've ever heard.

All in all, this isn't a terrible show, it's just a weird one. A hybrid of the A-Team and The Crow. It almost feels like Zabel came up with an idea for a TV show about a man who returns from the dead and then realised it sounded too similar to The Crow so bought the rights and just reworked a few bits to make it fit.

(Part 2 of the Completist Guide to The Crow series coming soon...)