The last time we got a movie that took this much heat before its release was ‘Borderlands’ from a few weeks ago.  ‘Borderlands’ was savaged with negative reviews the week leading up to its release and became one of the biggest flops of 2024.

As bad as the critical reaction to that movie was,  the reaction was even worse for the 2024 remake of ‘The Crow’.  A movie that is Infamous for the 1993 onset incident that killed actor Brandon Lee son of Bruce Lee. Brandon was shot after a scene when a gun that was supposed To have blanks left a dummy round in the chamber of a .44  that struck Brandon in the chest thus killing him.

With Lee’s death, the film became a cult classic and one of the biggest cinematic what-ifs in Industry history. 30 years later, Lionsgate said that they were going to reboot the franchise under the same name as a 1994 movie but the development of this film was anything but an easy ride.  moral issues aside, the film spent 16 years and developmental hell with a multitude of actors that were at one point assigned to the project or at least offered it. Mark Wahlberg, Channing Tatum, Jason Momoa, Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, James McAvoy, Alexander Skarsgård, Norman Reedus, Nicholas Hoult, and Jack O’Connell Are all names actors who were associated with this project before ultimately landing on Bill Skarsgard As the lead in the film.

Sometimes it’s better to let a project die than release something that can be described as mediocre at best. However, Lionsgate had too much money and too much time invested to quit while they were ahead which leaves us with the 2024 remake of ‘The Crow.’

The Crow begins with a troubled and abused kid named Eric who finds himself in an institution for troubled youth and needless to say he’s not very good at making friends.  Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a young girl named Shelly is tied up in a massive cover-up tied to a demonic crime Lord who made a deal with the Devil to gain the power to force anyone to do as he pleases.

Eric and Shelly end up at the same institution locked away together and this is where their love story begins,  after escaping the two go into the city in hopes of finding the remnants of a normal life which is something that neither has been able to enjoy.  However, Shelly’s past comes back to bite both of them in the worst way as they are both killed in the cover-up.  Eric finds himself in the land between the living and the dead as he has offered one opportunity to attempt to save Shelly from her Fate In Hell and the only way of doing so is killing everyone responsible for their deaths.

When a movie opens with  6% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s hard to imagine going into a film and not preparing to see the worst thing that you’ve seen the entire year.  While The Crow is not Borderlands’ level of bad,  that sentiment might change depending on how hardcore of a fan you are of the previous movie or the comic book series that birthed it.

Lionsgate had a tough call of trying to emulate a film that has become a cult classic with modern audiences without being accused of giving them an unoriginal ripoff.  In an attempt to correct this, they decide to go their way which shifts a lot from the source material.  On face value this is a story about two people who had their lives ripped away from right at the moment they thought they found what they were looking for.

Bill Sarsgaard plays the character of Eric in the film and did this movie within weeks of wrapping up his previous 2024 film ‘Boy Kills World.’ There’s not much of this mysterious about his character in the film,  from what we are told Eric is a troubled kid who came from a rough upbringing and it’s not good with people. FKA Twigs Who played Shelly in the film becomes the missing piece in his life as the film presents us with the central motivation of the movie. Eric lost the only thing that was worth living so he went to the depths of hell if it meant giving her a second chance at life.  The problem here is that this creates a few logical gaps in the story by attempting to focus on Eric and Shelly’s love story.

 The two managed to escape what you would think would be a high-security Institution knowing that there are people after them due to Shelly’s connection to a previous murder.  Despite this knowledge, protagonists seem to completely ignore the gravity of their situation to play girlfriend and boyfriend in a city until they are caught and brought to their demise.

Another logical Gap in the film is the motivation for our villain, Danny Hudson plays Vincent Roeg, a crime boss with demonic powers however the film doesn’t give a proper explanation of how and why he received these powers in the first place,  giving the implication that there was a lot here left on the cutting room floor.  For a runtime that stretches 2 hours,  this is a movie that could have used a little more exposition to explain the logic gaps in the story.

It’s hard to tell fans of the original Crow to mend their expectations of a reboot that came out 30 years after the original film when the studio decided to give it the same name as the original movie. The storytelling in this movie is a clear step down from the original. The filmmakers suggested that they wanted to stay true to the original comic, but many hardcore fans will have a hard time seeing it in the final project.

 With that said, the film is not all bad.  Suppose you have no emotional connection with the original movie or comic that birthed it. In that case, the crow reboot comes off like your average over-the-top action movie that audiences have been fed over the last 10 years.  The 2024 version is certainly far bloodier than the original when you enter the third Act in the movie which becomes a shoot-em-up / slash-him-up action movie.

The acting in the film is pretty solid, it’s the story that hurts the performance. A script that has been chopped up and passed around for at least 16 years cannot overcome even the best attempt at saving the movie that some of our actors give. A bit more polishing would have made this film a decent hit and a down year for cinema but at the same time, there’s no excuse for not being able to polish a movie that has been in the works since 2008.

2024 is not as bad as the Rotten Tomatoes score will lead you to believe, however, the obvious flaws of the story are apparent to everyone which at the end of the day makes the film another toothless Hollywood reboot.

2/5

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