The Crow: Salvation

Despite feeling split about 'The Crow: Salvation' for a decent chunk whilst watching, the more I think about it the more I recognise that I did suitably enjoy it.

It took me a fair while to warm to Eric Mabius as the titular character, but by the time the end credits rolled around I got enough out of his performance - it's good enough. Kirsten Dunst is an interesting cast member, as is 'Prison Break' alum Jodi Lyn O'Keefe. Fred Ward gives a solid showing, probably the standout away from/alongside Mabius.

It's a definite improvement on the unfortunately lousy 'The Crow: City of Angels'. The story here felt more in line with the original (if still far adrift in terms of quality and style), with enough differences but also a few callbacks of sorts. I do like how they explain the main character's facial features in this one.

As for a rating, I was umming and ahing between 6/10 and 7/10. The latter just about wins out.

Returning to basics, The Crow: Salvation delivers an entertaining thriller full of exciting action. In this installment, the Crow resurrects a wrongfully executed prisoner so that he can find the true killers of his girlfriend and avenge her. The storytelling is fairly good, and is full of intrigue and suspense. However, some of the directing is weak, and the actors aren’t that charismatic. But, the action scenes are well staged and add a lot of energy to the film. Though it doesn’t live up to the original, The Crow: Salvation is a solid revenge thriller that stays true to James O’Barr’s vision.

For a direct-to-video sequel to "The Crow," I could have imagined a much worse film than "Salvation." I would even say that it is a tad better than "City of Angels." The latter was a little more on point in terms of style, but this third installment has a story that is easier to follow. The surprisingly impressive cast is also noteworthy, though lead actor Eric Mabius is the weakest link in the chain.

Ultimately, however, the film isn't really good, as everything is too generic for my liking. The villains centered around a group of corrupt cops are also super-flat, and the revenge story is ultimately just a half-baked rehash of the plot from the previous films. But at the very least, I wasn't all that bored this time, which is a significant improvement over the previous film.

You know when the sister of your dead girlfriend is grieving the death of her sister the best thing to do is to give her the memories of her sister’s last moments of murder and rape

What this loses in budget and style from the second it trades for a surprisingly decent plot. Adding a bit of a murder mystery flair to it livens things up, along with the police corruption and a supporting cast that does great at being detestable. Corvus’ reckless streak differentiates him from his predecessors, but Durst isn’t given enough to make her character much of anything. Having the Crow be an established phenomenon at this point gives it a nice twist- ‘if we give him what he wants, he’ll go away’. And the crow similarly learning from past movies by faking dead when it’s targeted is also a nice touch. It’s not an amazing or even good film, but it’s alright.

Probably deserves a lesser rating than I’m giving it from a technical standpoint but I had enough laughs to still somewhat enjoy the viewing. The make up and acting was generally bad, some really stupid dialogue throughout. Did you know his girlfriend was stabbed 53 times? We are reminded of that so often as the movie rolls through its plot. So much silliness, an explosion that takes out the helicopter, a bad guy hiding right in front of a camera where he is clearly displayed on monitors, I could go on and on but hey its so stupid it’s entertaining.

I thought maybe giving it some time and preparing myself for the disappointment, it wouldn't be so bad, but even after almost two decades its failure has not faded. It's just such a lousy movie. The acting is all around bad, the dialog is brutal, the action is boring, everything about it feels like a cheap TV production, and it's soundtrack is pandering. It's such a shame the series came to this.