2024’s The Crow didn’t breathe new life into its namesake franchise, but the general bones of the story could’ve worked much better as a supernatural take on John Wick.
1994’s The Crow holds a special place in the hearts of many as the final, posthumous tale of Brandon Lee’s rise to action movie stardom before a tragic on-set accident ended his life. Due to the enduring popularity of Alex Proyas’ 1994 film, a remake of The Crow has been in the works for ages, with Bill Skarsgård boarding The Crow reboot in its final incarnation and Rupert Sanders directing.
Unfortunately, The Crow has ended 2024’s summer movie season with the weakest of whimpers, with an overall terrible reception and a meager $13.2 million worldwide as of this writing (against a $50 million budget.) However, it didn’t have to be this way, mainly because The Crow itself shows that it didn’t need to be a Crow reboot at all. Many elements of The Crow reboot demonstrate that it could have worked far better, and had a much better chance at success, by being something that has never been produced before – namely, a supernatural version of John Wick.
The Crow Reboot Is Surprisingly Generic & Takes Way Too Long To Get Going
For as long as it has taken for The Crow reboot to be realized, the movie itself has almost none of the comic book visual style or heavy metal aura of the 1994 original, or of James O’Barr’s comic book. Virtually nothing about the new Crow’s very generic urban landscape screams “Detroit on Devil’s Night” in the same way that 1994’s The Crow presents at every turn.
On top of that, The Crow remake spends over an hour just getting Skarsgård’s Eric Draven in place to begin his revenge mission. The movie’s first half follows Eric and Shelly’s (FKA Twigs) romance with such devotion that the film’s pace severely suffers for it, especially in comparison to the 1994 Crow. In the time it takes for 2024’s The Crow just to get the newly deceased Eric Draven back on Earth and on the hunt for his and Shelly’s killers, Brandon Lee’s Eric had already taken out Tin Tin and several of his party pals, with his sights set on finishing the score with the rest of Top Dollar (Michael Worth) and his gang. That said, The Crow isn’t a total loss.
The Crow Does Have A Couple Of Strong Action Scenes
When The Crow finally does get down to business, the movie really delivers some intense, beautiful, and extremely bloody R-rated action. In particular, Eric’s battle with a group of guards at an opera house is the movie’s stand-out action sequence, Eric completely impervious to his enemy’s gunfire and finding ways to turn it around on them, along with bringing some bladed vengeance to the game with a Japanese wakizashi.
Within the context of The Crow, the movie saves the best for last even if its smackdown of bullets and blades comes way too late in the game, and with too little action of the same caliber along the way. Even so, in this action scene, The Crow shows that with its general story template and some reworking, it could have been a John Wick-style action movie with a very distinct novelty.
Why A Supernatural John Wick Would’ve Been A Better Idea Than A Crow Reboot
The chase to make the next John Wick has arguably gone a little overboard with practically every new action movie blending gun fu and martial arts being likened to John Wick, but in the case of The Crow, it could have worked far better as a supernatural John Wick precisely because the world has never SEEN a supernatural John Wick.
The action scenes in The Crow, when they arrive, clearly have a John Wick influence in how the gun and swordplay is executed, and the movie’s general revenge theme is a clear commonality with the John Wick franchise, as well. With a more consistent flow and quantity of action, The Crow could be a John Wick-style revenge movie of an immortal version of the Baba Yaga returning to avenge his and his loved one’s murder from beyond the grave. Sadly, The Crow’s failure can largely be attributed to the remake simply offering more of the same in a surprisingly flat way. But if nothing else, that still leaves the concept of “supernatural John Wick” an open and very viable one for the right screenwriter and director to tackle!
RELATED: The Crow’s 30th Anniversary Is Here, And It’s Still Better Than Any Remake Could Ever Be!
The Crow (2024) |
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A modern re-imagining of the beloved character, The Crow, based on the original graphic novel by James O'Barr. |
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| Studio: Pressman Film, Davis Films, The Electric Shadow Company, Ashland Hill Media, Finance Hassell, Free Productions, Media Capital Technologies, 30West, Lionsgate Films |
| Running Time: 111 minutes |
| Release Date: August 23, 2024 |
| Cast: Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston, Laura Birn, Jordan Bolger, Isabella Wei, Sami Bouajila, David Bowles, Dukagjin Podrimaj |
| Director: Rupert Sanders |
| Writers: James O'Barr, Zack Baylin, William Josef Schneider |
| Genre: Action, Crime, Fantasy |
| Box Office: $13.2 million |
