Director Rupert Saunders’s The Crow (2024) is the remake of Director Alex Proyas’s cult classic The Crow (1994) starring the late Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, who rises from the dead to avenge his beloved soulmate Shelly. On his bloody path, Eric really came back for love. Sadly during filming, Brandon died in an accident on-set. Like his father Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, Brandon’s The Crow was released after his tragic death.
The Crow was a box office hit. I believe that handsome, charismatic Brandon Lee would have become a super star. He was a great martial artist and gifted actor. That was 30 years ago. Brandon would have been 60 years old, now. A couple years younger than me. I have nothing but mad love for Brandon. His was a great loss.
Ironically, Chad Stahelski was the body double for Brandon’s uncompleted scenes. Filmmakers super imposed Brandon’s digital face on Chad’s body. Chad and Brandon were good friends. Many years later, Chad Stahelski directed the John Wick movies starring Keanu Reeves as another avenging angel John Wick. Keanu’s John Wick came back to his former life as an assassin to kill those who betrayed him. He came back for his late wife Helen. He came back for love. That’s the legacy.
Bill Skarsgard (John Wick: Chapter 4) plays the iconic role of Eric Draven based on the same source comic book material by James O’Barr with the screenplay by Zach Baylin and William Josef Schneider. Bill Skarsgard is vulnerable and charismatic in the updated goth version of Eric. Bill is very good. In The Crow, Eric has had a hard life as the scars on his wrists reveal to Shelly from his failed suicide attempts.
I gather The Crow (2024) is closer to comic book than Brandon Lee’s The Crow. Director Rupert Saunders provides the back story of Eric’s childhood. Everything that he loves ended up dying violently. Beautiful and smart FKA twigs plays Shelly, who becomes Eric’s soulmate. Shelly is the talented musician entangled with the evil Vincent Roeg, played with menacing zeal by Danny Huston. Shelly’s sad mother Sophia, played by strong Josette Simon, is beholding to Vincent, too.
Shelly’s friend texts her the video of her own unspeakable actions. Although she was literally Vincent’s pawn that is no reprieve. The text video incriminates both of them. Consequently, Vincent wants Shelly dead. On the run, Shelly gets arrested for drug possession. She’s sent to the sanatorium where she meets Eric. Their sanatorium meeting seems like a screenplay glitch or contrived.
Sophia betrays her own daughter in telling Vincent, Shelly’s location. Eric helps Shelly escape to freedom. They find refuge in the luxury crib of one of Shelly’s rich friends. Eric and Shelly make love and fall in love, not necessarily in that order. Bill and FKA’s screen chemistry make up for some of Zach and William’s narrative fails.
Her past catches up with Shelly. Vincent’s henchmen kill Shelly and Eric. However, they don’t just die. They are vanquished to the metaphysical world. Eric awakes in the dark realm populated by crows. Yet, Shelly descends further beneath, as in hell, because of her profound sins.
Eric’s guide Kronos, played with cool gravitas by Sami Bouajila, says, “When someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. And sometimes, something so bad happens that the soul cannot rest until you put the wrong things right.” Kronos grants Eric the powers of a god in the land of the living. On his mission of vengeance to save Shelly’s soul, he cannot be killed. Or so we think. Eric will forsake his own soul for Shelly’s. That’s his legacy.
In the touching narrative arc, Eric cries when he discovers Shelly’s atrocities. He can still forgive her. He will forfeit his very soul for hers. As Eric, Bill Skarsgard’s unconditional love for Shelly nearly saves The Crow. Almost. Mistakenly, Director Rupert Saunders chooses the hyper-violent bloody path to resolve his gothic love story.
In The Crow (1994), Brandon Lee delivers his signature fight scene with the mob boss’s army, wielding a gun and katana. The late Brandon was the accomplished martial artist, son of Bruce Lee. He was natural grace and power. Much like his father.
In The Crow (2024), Bill Skarsgard’s Eric brutally kills Vincent’s men at the opera house with a gun and katana, too. When Kronos sends back Eric to fight for Shelly’s soul, suddenly he possesses expert martial arts skills. WTF? Yeah, Brandon’s style wins over the wannabe John Wick blood and mixed martial arts gore.
In The Crow’s climatic narrative arc, is all forgiven? Can Shelly be forgiven? Just asking. Bill Skarsgard does his noble best as Eric fights for true love. That along with the relentless blood and gore disappoints in The Crow (2024). In the narrative arc of The Crow (1994), Brandon’s Eric exacts his revenge, then collapses on Shelly’s grave. He sees beautiful Shelly walk to him. They kiss. It was always about love. As it should be.
In The Crow (1994), Eric’s human guide Sarah, played by innocent Rochelle Davis, poignantly says, “If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.” In The Crow (2024), real love is not forever. That is the singularly sad miscalculation.
That being said, the late Brandon Lee was stolen from us far too soon. I always have mad love and respect for Brandon. That love is forever. Rest in peace, my brother. “And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Author
