Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I appreciate director Rupert Sanders’ latest reinterpretation of James O’Barr’s The Crow. This doesn’t mean you have to, nor am I saying you should, but I did want to make a case here of sorts.
I’m not at all familiar with the source material outside the current treatments since 1994, and while new reboot does have its hangups, it also tells a salient revenge story that checks some boxes along the way. The movie treads between aesthetics of a midwestern road adventure and the kind of urban gothic thriller that Alex Proyas’s heyday vision efforted.
Coupled with a script and character iterations that miss their mark, and unfortunately it results in a dark fantasy tale mismatched and dissonant in tone and tangibility in its extensions of depth, with a lead actor in Bill Skarsgård who otherwise makes the most out of what he has. I loved the version of Shelley portrayed by FKA Twigs, and how her tortured past coheses with the threat posed by the film’s soul-sucking Opera-going villain of choice, Roeg, played by Danny Huston.
What proves to be a wait for our hero to finally transform leaves an equally rewarding brutal and bloody finale, topped off with a palatable finish that gives our mains an amiable send off. I did read that Sanders was reluctant to indicate a sequel at the end despite having to change the ending accordingly, and even so, I think what The Crow proffers in this latest treatment bodes enough from a director whose previous adaptation of a beloved IP measures about the same.
Again, it all depends on where the bar is for you as a fan. Hopefully, perhaps The Crow will fly again under better auspices and more appealing execution.
