Rent The Crow (2024)

Redundant reboot - The Crow review by AER

Sadly this remake of The Crow is a waste of time. Whilst some of it looks good, it doesn't get the blood flowing like the 1994 original. It's also as flat, if not flatter than the 90s sequel The Crow - City of Angels too. There's not much you can do with the plot of The Crow. It's a simple revenge tale, yet this remake tries to front load the tale by delving into the relationshop between Eric and Shelley, so Eric doesn't even become the undead avenging angel until about an hour in. The acting is OK, but the script is corny, there is even a 'Basil Exposition' character who tell us/him the crow's purpose and how he can suffer pain but can't be killed as long as his love is pure. The baddies are potentially interesting, Danny Huston brings something to his immortal villain, but unlike the 1994 original, the henchmen are not memorable. We needed a T-Bird and gang, and the pawn shop manager plyed by Jon Polito. For all it's flaws the original was an unstoppable action horror classic - this new one is pale, forgettable and at times, super lame.

Stylish but shallow - The Crow review by sb

Remaking a beloved cult classic is a tricky thing to pull off well, even if to be honest I have always felt the original Crow has been elevated beyond its actual merits by the on set death of star Brandon Lee. Sadly this long gestating version should have stayed in the oven cooking for another few years. Bafflingly this new Crow strips back the original film’s lore and introduces new elements (like a visualisation of purgatory) that either add little, or simply make no sense.  The actual Crow of the title is little more than mall-goth window dressing here, no explanation is given for the twink hero. Suddenly developing martial arts skills in the last act, and the villains are so paperthin that the make the original’s Fun Boy look like a Shakespeare character. Apparently the film was shot without a finished screenplay, and it shows. The lead actors are given nothing to work with, bad enough for an experienced actor like Bill Skarsgaard, but a disaster for pop singer FKA Twigs who flounders despite having a unique screen presence and dancer’s physicality. 

The film leans surprisingly hard into 18 cert gore, but the action is blighted by obvious CGI blood, and there basically isn’t any until the last act. It looks fabulous, especially in 4k, but when the material is this flimsy… so what?