The Crow: Salvation (2000)

THE CROW: SALVATION
RATING: 5/10 --> Not a good movie

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I really liked the original CROW film. Many elements of the film worked for me, especially the lead role inhabited by Brandon Lee, the fresh approach to the "death avenger" theme, the fantastic soundtrack, the artful direction, the entire look and feel of the movie, and whether I liked it or not, the irony and sadness connected to the film's actual production. The follow-up to the original film sucked because its lead was weak and carried a heavy and distracting accent, the plot was lame and the ending...just embarrassing. This third installment is now being paraded around in hopes of finding a proper distribution outlet. Is it any good? Well, it's definitely better than the second one... :)

PLOT: Despite his continuous pleas of innocence, a 21-year old man gets the electric chair after he is found guilty of murdering his girlfriend. Once electrocuted, the dead man returns to the world as a "ghost" (for lack of a better word) and attempts to piece together the real story behind the brutal slaying of his love, and avenge both of their deaths.

CRITIQUE: A great looking picture which did sort of remind me of the "feel" from the original, but without any of its edge, passion or freshness. All I kept thinking as I watched this movie was "haven't I seen this exact same movie before?!?". There wasn't really anything new here. Same ol'- same ol' story. Guy and his lover die...he wants to extract revenge on the bad guys...he comes back from the dead and starts kicking ass. The only problem in a situation like that is that since you already know just about everything that is about to happen, you basically just sit there connecting the dots without much invested in the story. In fact, the film's only real salvation could have been in its key characters or interactions, but despite Mabius putting forth a valiant effort, the rest of the cast, and overly poetic dialogue, just plain sucked. In fact, many people in our audience (granted it was a midnight premiere and a few people were...uhmm, let's just say "a little tipsy") were cracking up during many of this film's "supposed" tender moments of sincerity (and that's WITH both O'Barr and Mabius in the audience with us).

I too found much of it to be a little overly melodramatic. Then again, this is what we have pretty much come to expect from the CROW films, since the dude is essentially heartbroken and poetic, but in this film, the premise just didn't seem to fly anymore. The film itself was definitely a little more entertaining that the second installment with some pretty slick gory death scenes, a loud but cool soundtrack, and a lead who doesn't throw you off with a cheesy accent. In fact, I credit Mabius for pulling off a decent outing despite my initial skepticism (A teen Crow? Never!). Unfortunately, you don't really care about ANY of the characters, especially the bad guys or the family left behind, so all you're basically left with is a low-rent CROW retread with a decent lead, a nice look, but plenty of bad dialogue, zero originality or depth.

Review Date: July 21, 2000
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Writer: Chip Johannessen
Producers: Jeff Most, Alessandro Camon and Edward Pressman
Actors: Eric Mabius as Alex Corvis
Kirsten Dunst as Erin Randall
Jodi Lynn O'Keefe as Lauren Randall
Genre: Thriller
Year of Release: 2000
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