CROW, THE: CITY OF ANGELS / CROW, THE: SALVATION

I'm about to open the floodgates but I'm wearing a life-jacket and am ready for the surge... I don't really need to review Alex Proyas' The Crow starring Brandon Lee. It's a work of art, a modern masterpiece and a fucking awesome movie... and so I'll jump straight to The Crow: City Of Angels. On the heels of such a critically acclaimed film, it was a brave thing to tempt fate twice. City Of Angels was not received well and was harshly judged. I never understood the hate... where the first film was a gothic horror, COA was a grunge horror. It's aesthetically different and well made. Director Tim Pope has a long history of stylised music videos, having directed most of The Cure's clips and he brings a new vision to the franchise that separates itself from what people expected and perhaps that was the movie's fault. David Goyer (Batman Begins) wrote the screenplay and he also envisioned something dirtier and more insipid. Now that 16 years have past, the movie has found itself a cult following. Time has served it well and it's a decent film unto itself. 

And then there was 3. "Salvation" is the second sequel in the series and again tried to redefine the property. It was a well intentioned entry to the franchise but sadly missed the mark. The story is good enough and the reimaging of The Crow character is pretty cool... but the movie simply lacks a visual presence. It looks more like a television crime show than the horror vigilante movie that it's supposed to be. All's it would have taken to elevate it would have been a different lighting design and cinematography because all of the other components are in place. Still, I don't hate Salvation. It might be a lacklustre sequel in comparison with the previous films but as a stand-alone it works well enough to make it worth a look. What it does have going for it is a really fucking awesome soundtrack. 

Oh and here's my review for the 4th Crow film "Wicked Prayer".... it's a turd!