The Crow (1994)

 

Genre: Action/Fantasy 

Time: 1h 42mins

Director: Alex Proyas

Quick Summary: A young guitarist rises from the dead to avenge the brutal murder of his girlfriend on Devil's Night, seeking the blood of those who wronged him.

Even though this was a low-Budget film, it knew how to grab your attention and pull you into this gothic, edgy, and cheesy revenge film. I loved every moment of this. 

The atmosphere is really what sells this film. It's so eerie and gritty, like a Batman film. It's dark, rainy, and unnerving really perfecting the tone of this film. Everything about this film is surrounded by the Goth iconography and it knew exactly how to do that, whilst still being as close to the comics as I've ever seen any movie do. One thing I absolutely love was the splash of red tones throughout the film. It popped right out next to the black and white colour palette this has.

The soundtrack is amazing too. Several musical styles meld together. Grunge-rock, Industrial rock, Thrash metal, Shoegaze, New Wave. Nothing sounds out of place. Everything here fits the atmosphere of this wonderfully. 

Now the absolute best part of this film is Brandon Lee's Performance. It's so captivating. Though he's paired with silly dialogue that seems very cheesy most of the time, he embodies our main Anti-Hero full of broodiness and Violence. His psychical acting skills as well as his subtle emotional ones excelled as much as his fighting choreography did, he was honestly so entertaining to watch. It reminded me of Heath ledger's joker funnily enough.

Unfortunately, the plot is very cliche and gets a bit repetitive, but I really did mind it since it was pumped full of cool action shoot-outs, explosions and intense fight scenes. The pacing works really well for a film like this being very sharp and snappy, fitting in well with how quick everything happens. Though I will say, there are a lot of dating edits, such as the freeze frame snapshots and slow motion parts, honestly, I really liked that because I love how 90's this film feels.  

A lot of the other characters, including the villains, felt very one-note to me and very forgettable. They're there just for brutal death scenes, (which I'm not fully complaining about), or to fill the film out a bit more. The Main Villian (Top Dollar) I found very boring and I didn't really see a need for him to be added, as the whole premise of the film is for Eric (Brandon Lee) to seek revenge on the people who killed him. 

Really, I adore this film a lot. There's something so captivating about it. I get lost in Brandon Lee's performance every time, and I really recommend people watch this. It's not perfect or flawless, but it's so unique and interesting it's worth watching it. I love it despite its flaws.

8.5/10

"Tell Them Eric Draven Sends His Regards."

“Our Friend T-Bird Won't Be Joining Us This Evening On Account Of A Slight Case Of Death”

"Can't Rain All The Time"