Why So Blu?

The Crow (2024) (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

In 1994, The Crow was officially released following the shocking and tragic on-set shooting and death of Brandon Lee.  Filming continued with doubles and the film was dedicated to Lee’s memory.  The film became an iconic independent film that spawned some direct-to-video sequels and a soundtrack of Industrial Rock that pleased fans of the genre.  This reboot of The Crow began its creative stages way back in 2008.  I say that because we will revisit that tidbit later in our review.  So read on for more about this new telling of The Crow and be on the lookout for more on the film and it’s 1994 counterpart too!

Film:

Bill Skarsgård takes on the iconic role of The Crow in this modern reimagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr. Soulmates Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.

Eric has been in rehab for a while.  He feels rehabilitated and ready to get out of the facility.  When Shelly arrives, he immediately falls for her.  The pair hatch a plan to break out of rehab when Shelly receives a video from a doomed friend that can incriminate a villain from her past.  When their hiding becomes exposed, the two are murdered by Roeg (Danny Huston), a crime lord with demonic powers. While Shelly stays dead, Eric is resurrected and becomes The Crow to avenge Shelly’s death and possibly bring her back to life with the help of Kronos (Sami Bouajila), his spirit guide.  Will Eric avenge Shelly and resurrect her? One can only guess to find out.

The Crow is a so-called “cursed film.” Brandon Lee, an actor poised to become an action star met a young death much like his own father, Bruce Lee.  The film was close to being done and to honor him, the filmmakers and cast came together to finish the film.  The result is a tastefully done tribute to the actor the world had lost.  If nothing more, it’s a time capsule of dark 90’s superhero ideas.  The same tropes were long out of fashion when talks of rebooting the once direct-to-video franchise for the big screen, way back in 2008.  Many iterations of the screenplay and casting/director changes came and went over and over.  This should’ve stopped whoever was developing the film in those stages and left the series, much like its fallen star to rest.

Fast forward to 2022, and we hear rumblings about The Crow’s resurrection.  With director Rupert Sanders at the helm, the film cast Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs in the leads and curiosity piqued.  Skarsgård has been playing villains and anti-heroes in his climb up to leading man status.  He is mostly regarded as a formidable killer in Pennywise the Clown of the resurrected It franchise.  He has an elastic face and creepy gaze that even outside of makeup can send a shiver through you.  This was an obvious casting choice. When first look photos came out, the now mulletted and tattooed Crow looked laughable and so out of touch with the original vision in the comic and the first film.  FKA Twigs’ Shelly didn’t fare much better.

When the film’s first reviews were coming out, I knew I had been having that uneasy feeling about the film was warranted.  The complaints of poor chemistry, bad writing and uneven directing sent me reeling.  I knew I wouldn’t be the only one feeling this way and watched for the film to see how audiences reacted to it.  When the film could not manage to make more than $9-ish million stateside, I knew it was a DOA release. In essence, there had been 16 years of wasted time from anyone who had been involved in any process of creating this “reboot.”

And my opinion, you ask? I believe The Crow should’ve been left to fly in 1994.  The first film was more than enough, especially with the tragedy that happened behind the scenes.  This film, 30 years later, feels unnecessary.  The story is nonsense.  The characters are not fully developed.  The chemistry between so-called “soulmates” is non-existent.  And whoever thought we wanted to watch a movie so dark we are squinting to see it was beyond wrong.  The team putting together wardrobe and sets most likely did not want their work to be lost in darkness.  The music choices are also not very solid.  One minute you’re hearing Joy Division, then you’re hearing a score cue that sounds lifted from a drama, then some horrid EDM song, and the most laughable, an Enya song, sampled many times over, here in it’s original 1986 form.  Out of place is an understatement. The music is as all over the place as the pacing and the acting.  Skarsgård lapses in and out of accent and FKA Twigs can’t decide which emotion she wants to emote when she’s on screen.

I always say that no matter what I think of a film, that doesn’t mean the film doesn’t have an audience with others. This film though, I can’t really figure out who wanted it to be the new vision for The Crow. All roads point to no one, if you ask me.  The film is as fake and soulless as cash-grab cinema gets, and unfortunately for me, another reason why I am so disappointed at the state of a lot of what happens with cinema today. While I am bitterly writing this negative review, I am hoping for something new, original and exciting to come out.  Making money or not, quality films are still in need. But make no mistake – This is not a quality film.

Read my colleague Aaron Neuwirth’s Theatrical Review HERE

Read Brian White’s musings on the original film HERE

Video:

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-100

HDR: Dolby Vision

Clarity/Detail: The Crow sports a very dark 4K transfer.  Graded with Dolby Vision, I expected the HDR to help boost some of the darker points, but I found myself having to close curtains just to keep squinting while watching the film.  Clarity improved in the pitch darkness, but I was still not too impressed with the dull visuals.

Depth: To my eyes, I saw some sharp depth details when things weren’t swathed in darkness, with foregrounds in the rehab facility looking best, solely because this is one location or setting that wasn’t full of shadows and dim lighting.

Black Levels: Deep blacks rule the day, and even if the depths of the blacks and shadows verge on crush, and I had to squint the whole film, I didn’t witness crushing.

Color Reproduction: Colors are dim and dull and depressing, but something tells me this was artistic intent, and so I can’t necessarily complain.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones often appear pale and grey, but again, artistic intent seems to be the name of the game.

Noise/Artifacts: None

Audio:

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles:  English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: The Crow has a serviceable Atmos mix, that has music and action beats to engage all channels and dialogue placed perfectly throughout.

Height: Height channels place music above you.  Sound effects can carry from height down to the surrounds and the height speakers work in a mostly static way as opposed to being used more dynamically.

Low-Frequency Extension: Bass is used for music and action scenes.  The LFE doesn’t dig as deep as I’d like, but it works for the film all the same.

Surround Sound Presentation: Surrounds are for music, echoes, sound effects and they’re complimentary to the front channels throughout.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue clarity is excellent. The dialogue you hear? Eh.

Extras:

The new iteration of The Crow contains an extensive hourlong making of documentary along with shorter extras on the score, the main title sequence, a tribute to Producer Edward R. Pressman who had made many better films than this one.  We finally get deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer.  Despite the film being terrible it’s helpful to see so much info about the film, and even if the filmmakers’ passions don’t translate onto the screen, it shows they did intend to make something better than we got.  Alas, the film is not what these crew and cast and filmmakers gush over during the making-of.

There are 2 editions of The Crow in 4K. The standard edition comes with an O-Ring glossy slipcover along with an Amazon and Walmart Exclusive 4K steelbook. This steelbook continues Lionsgate’s use of slipcover and is as usual, nice looking.

Summary:

The Crow is an end-to-end disappointment.  The film is lifeless from the start and doesn’t get much energy from its leads or the DOA storyline. The style is all that the film has and even that style is a hodgepodge of many other better-done ideas.  This is like a film with ideas being vomited up from a lot of creatives that aren’t on the same page.  The film looks dark in 4K and isn’t something I can say I recommend. When the extras for a film fare better than the film you’ve just watched, you know you’re in trouble. If you’re a fan of The Crow, watch at your own risk, but unfortunately, I can’t give a positive review.

Order The Crow (Standard 4K) HERE

Order The Crow (4K Steelbook) HERE