The Crow (2024) review

 I saw The Crow (2024), and here are my thoughts…

The Crow (based on the James O’Barr comic) tells the story of Eric, who comes back from the dead to avenge the death of his girlfriend (Shelley) after they are both murdered with the help of his new aviation friend.

So this movie is getting dumped on by the critics… hard. And I love The Crow, I’ve read the original book, and gotten it autographed by the author, and the original movie is one of my favorites, I have drank “The Crow” Kool-Aid, and in some of the biggest detractors of this movie are fans of the original, and honestly I don’t think it deserves the level of vitriol it’s getting. In fact, I think some of the choices it makes are commendable.

I like that it focuses on Eric and Shelly’s romance, seeing them fall in love, and you getting to know them. Some people might think they’re romances a little quick, and I can agree in certain areas. Still, on the other hand, they are both former attics who had troubled childhoods, so that kind of personality definitely craves attention and will latch onto strong emotions for a sort of bliss high, in my experience.

In the original book, I would say half of it is Eric getting revenge on the murderers, and the other half is him being sullen and grieving the loss of Shelly. So the original film focuses more on revenge. In contrast, this one focuses more on melancholy, which is a good way to, not only stay faithful to the regional source material but differentiate from other entries.

I appreciate how it tries to do its own thing, like a lot of franchise movies nowadays are riddled with Easter eggs from the previous films and nostalgia to get the audience to fist pump and go “YEAH!”, and apart from a few minor things that don’t call attention to themselves, this movie tries to stand on its own 2 feet, which is commendable

And then introduced the idea that while yes, he heals from all his injuries, he can still feel pain. So when you’re getting shot up, it’s harder to fight because well… that’s gonna hurt a lot. It’s a good idea to add stakes when your character basically has god mode on it makes it more of a struggle for him to achieve his goals

The movie balances its look between realistic and slick, which is a distinct and good look, and the cast all perform what is asked

That being said, while this movie I feel has been dumped on a little too hard, I don’t think it’s unwarranted…

Biggest problem with this flick… it’s dull, like on paper it should be working, but it just feels like the plot is going through the motions, like the movie trying to hit these strong emotional notes, but it feels like the movie just took a strong hit of Novocaine.

And the plot itself is very standard, one of those revenge stories you’ve probably seen before, and will probably see again, nothing to stand out from the crowd really.

The villains are again pretty standard, I mean it’s Danny Houston being standard “Danny Houston” creepy, and the rest are just basic muscle except for one woman whose big characteristic is “sophisticated lady”.

It does take a while for Eric to fully become “The Crow”, on the one hand, I like that they took their time to let the events of the film play out naturally, but on the other hand, it does also feel like a lot of set up and when things finally start heating up, it’s the third act.

Towards the end of the second act, they introduced an idea to basically set up this big emotional ending, and while there are good ideas to it, it’s not executed the best way, something about the way it’s paced and trying to fit an under two hour run time just makes feel underdeveloped.

A very light spoiler here… so Eric and Shelly definitely spend at least a few weeks falling in love, even going out to the country for a vacation with friends… And they never think about leaving town until someone warns Shelley… like she knows people are looking for her, once she escaped with Eric from the facility they were in, her first thought should’ve been to get out of town, it just didn’t seem very smart to stick around

I will say the entire cast does a good job. Everyone does their job and does it well.

So, to wrap it up, while I do think this movie has commemorable parts that deserve acknowledgment and doesn’t deserve all the negative press, it is a flawed film that while well-intentioned, needed more time to develop and a few more passes on the script.

I give it a high two stars ⭐️⭐️ nothing to rush out and see but if you have a lazy Sunday and you want to watch an action movie, you might enjoy it.