You Can’t Always Judge a Remake by its Predecessor - The Crow (2024) Review
Admittedly, I did not see the original before checking out Rupert Sanders’ take on the 1994 Alex Proyas classic The Crow. This is probably why I was able to enjoy it without what most struggled to do and that’s comparing the two films. We can talk about the original another time, but let’s focus on this reimagined, updated version that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Before I get into my thoughts, I’ll give a brief overview of what the film is about: Eric (Bill Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) meet and quickly fall in love with each other. One night, they are both murdered, but only Eric’s soul resurfaces, caught in the limbo between life and death. He wants Shelly to come back and is told the only way that could happen would be to sacrifice himself and to right the wrongs that have happened before their deaths.
I went into the movie completely blind with no idea what was going to happen or what was supposed to happen (I didn’t see the trailer either, so yes, completely blind). The only thing I knew about this movie was that I wanted to see it and that it scored extremely low which further piqued my interest (weird right?). The start of the movie was living up to its score as I was completely confused at what I was watching for the first thirty minutes. It felt like I missed something or there’s a part of this movie missing because I didn’t see how Eric ended up in jail or if something in the flashbacks of him as a child became the reason for that.
When Eric sees Shelly it’s an instant connection like they knew each other their entire lives…and it's only been a few hours. It went from “who is that person” to “I love you and I will do anything for you” which was completely unbelievable to me, but it works for the story I guess. As I watch their fast track love story unfold, it’s not clear how they were both in the same prison (co-ed prison?), able to go to each other’s cells (again, co-ed prison?), and how very very easy it was for them to break out. Granted it was to escape the people trying to kill Shelly, but still, all they had to do was remove the trackers and hop the barbed wire fence and then ... freedom? Yeah, okay. What I did warm up to, though, was the relationship between Eric and Shelly. Bill and FKA twigs’ chemistry in this movie was phenomenal and honestly it’s what woke me up.
The pacing of this movie was horrendous. I’m wondering, now, if poor editing is the reason this movie didn’t perform a lot better. It was lazy storytelling up until both Eric and Shelly were killed and I kid you not I said “finally!” while watching this part. No, not that they’re killed, but because I felt like the movie was finally starting. Eric is met with a strange man (not sure what to call him), but he informed Eric of what was happening: the people that killed him and Shelly made a deal with the devil to send innocent souls to hell. That is no way to balance the orders of life so what Eric must do now is create that balance. In order to do that he must kill the ones who killed him and Shelly.
The second half of the movie is what changed my opinion of it and it’s because of Bill’s amazing performance of Eric as he avenged Shelly’s death. I couldn’t help but be on the edge of my seat the entire time. The ending broke my heart though (I won’t spoil it), but it left room for this story to possibly continue which I would thoroughly enjoy. My honest opinion of this movie is that the editing could’ve been a lot better. Especially in the first half, but if we could get past that, then it was a solid retelling of the 1994 original. If there were maybe twenty more minutes to fill in those gaps missing from the start of the film, it would’ve flowed a lot better.
Score: 7/10
What did you think of the film? Drop a comment.
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