Part I. Origins
Originally created by James O'Barr, the Crow depicts the story of unpremeditated violence and vengeance. James O'Barr poured out all his real emotions into depicting the story in an attempt to cope with the tragic and unfortunate passing of his fiancee, lost to a drunk driver in a car accident. Thus the main characters Erik and Shelly actually have a life prototype.
The main point of the comic when it comes to tragedy that happened to the characters is that this tragedy came unexpectedly and without any motive. The original situation of the car breaking down on the road and the couple being spotted by passing gang leaves you with the feeling of "what if..", what if they did not go to a picnic that day, what if the car never broke down. Most likely James asked himself these questions too "what if things could be different". But "what if" never happened.
The plotline of the Crow follows the man named Erik (last name Draven appeared in the movie adaptation), who came back to life thanks to mysterious entity we know and see as the crow. The crow is actually like a soul guide that allowed Erik to return to life, neither dead nor alive, to seek vengeance, so he could finally find peace. The Crow is quite brutal and violent when it comes to avenging himself and his beloved, he makes everyone know what for they're paying with their lives. And then the plotline gives us the full backstory of what exactly happened to Erik and Shelly.
Even if the plotline of the story is not new, but it is full of raw emotions of grief, an attempt to forgive yourself and atone.
James tried to cope with his own pain, as he admitted it didn't make him feel better, but for other the Crow and Erik became something they can deeply relate to.
The comic release corresponded with special period of time. It was a period of load of censorship stepping back, many shackles taken down. It felt like this era was full of rebellion, rock and a lot of emotion being poured in art, music and overall cultural impact. It is also the rise of the gothic culture and for it Erik became what they've been looking for. Even years later to many who read the comic, the story became something they could relate to and unleash their strong emotions.
Because this is where the Crow was born from, from deep love, from deep grief.
It's an attempt to cope. In a sense it's the idea to come to terms with yourself, to atone, to forgive.
Part II. Movie '94
Following the great success of the comic, it was evident that Crow would look good as a movie. Truth to be told, if it hasn't become the passion project for Brandon Lee and Alex Proyas, the director, this movie might have ended up a big flop. One might have heard that originally they could have given the movie to Tim Burton, but being honest, Burton has his own style that fits his own projects and there is a term of fitting director and Burton's style would have most likely ruined the Crow that we know nowadays. You could say Brandon and Proyas saved the Crow. But they also created a legend.
To adapt it to theaters several evident changes were made to the plot and characters. And I think the main and the biggest one was to give the gang a motive to commit a crime.
The original comic did not give the gang who just passed by a motive, simply because it was a mirror of true events that happened to author. The tragedy came when no one expected it. So some may not agree to such changes, because the tragedy in the movie you think might have been avoided, if there was no petition from Shelly, but I think that in a way, the motive is there not to make the story so hopelessly tragic. I've read many novels and saw many movies and I feel so depressed and sad for characters that can be said "they didn't do anything wrong, but they met such a tragic ending".
The plot was expanded to adapt to the movie format of course. The motive connected the gang to a big boss (simply making one of the existing characters into a bigger person) and other characters who already existed had their presence expanded, so the picture was more complicated. The added secondary characters, Sarah and sergeant, I see Sarah as "hope" and "future" and the sergeant as "justice" in the story.
And even if the plot is changed, but the tragedy remains.
Due to Shelly's petition with other residents of the house, she was targetted as initiator and also served as a scare for other residents. So on the Devil's night (which is the night before Halloween, followed by the night with most disturbance, such as fires, violence etc. in the movie) they are targeted and are dealt with by a sent group of people. This time it's a reverse from the comic, Erik dies being shot and thrown outside the window and Shelly survived for a little longer before she died in the hospital, just like Erik in the comic.
The after scene is the first scene we see, which is followed by sergeant and Sarah, for whom Shelly cared for, but we know that Shelly won't survive.
A year later the crow appears. Here is the bigger difference from the comic, in the comic appears at the scene of crime, he asks Erik to close his eyes not to witness the pain of his beloved being violated, but of course Erik refused, it felt like he wanted to imprint this hatered, so it also feels like crow appears as a sign of death that will follow soon. In the movie the crow appears at the cemetery and knocks on his grave, Erik is given the chance to return to uphold justice as he sees fit. And honestly even if those intro scenes where Erik follow the path home and finds an abandoned apartment full of memories and those scenes are very emo, but they show the character's anguish and deep sadness and hurt. His mind is tortured by the events as he takes each step closer. Even the almost jump out of the window is basically a replica of what happened to him as an act of going through his memory.
And then goes revenge.
It's interesting to see how Erik deals with people with things those people are initially interested in. Each person has to know the reason for their death and be dealt with things they were most known for. Before he reaches the main person - Top Dollar. Here I agree that if it was in original form, with original storyline, it would have been as great, but might have existed as a shorter film. Is it good or bad should be decided by the viewers. But considering how big of a classic this movie became, I think it can be considered a success.
This movie is like a dark tale, full of cool and distinct cinematography and also great soundtrack to emphasize the atmosphere and the period to which the Crow belongs to. I truly love the cinematography of it. It felt like more dystopian Detroit, full of darkness and fire. It felt like most of the movie was shot as night scenes, with dirt and rain. And even years later, it's still distinct and special.
Unfortunately, this success was not without a tragedy this movie is also known for. And that is what everyone knows, the tragic passing of Brandon Lee due to an accident with the prop gun during filming. I really feel sorry for his family, but I consider them being brave also, since they were the ones who insisted for the project to be finished and Brandon, who was so passionate about it, became the crow in the hearts of viewers.
I also feel sorry for James O'Barr, since he became friends with Brandon and his passing was in nature close to that of his fiancee, something so unexpected.
For many this movie became a support and outlet and I find it one of the greatest things about it.
Part III. Legacy
Now. As a great success The Crow was, as bad I consider the following adaptations. Maybe except one. Because the idea behind Crow might give a chance for other stories to be produced, thus some novels were published, some TV series or movies were produced and even a game. They were not created by James of course, but by other authors. And maybe here is where teh difference lies. James wrote his own story full of real emotions, while for others it might have been a profitable project, which always leaves a philistine taste.
Maybe except for one movie that stood out The Crow: Salvation from 2000. This one at least had an attempt at not being so goofie like others. Maybe they were not aiming at goofiness, but what can you do if it happened. Also Salvation has a completely different character and just uses the lore of The Crow, but at least it has a twist to it, since it has a wrongly accused character who returns to find out the truth, which puts the movie under different perspective unlike the previous ones that were simply followed the route of two people dieing unjustly and one of them returns for vengeance.
For many years the continuations were met with lukewarm response and even the projects met some unexpected events that set in stone the idea that this movie was cursed.
That was, until 30 years later Rupert Sanders came along.
Part IV. Movie '24
Even before watching, just seeing the trailer, my first and foremost desire was to throw eggs at the entire crew, director, producers and the cast. Directors and producers and the screenwriters are responsible for bringing this atrocity to life and the cast agreed to film in this shit.
I am this critical for a reason, because I would be okay if director would not touch the original, but no, they not only claim it to be a remake (Erik Draven is fully a character of the movie, original Erik did not have last name in the comic), so they could leech off the original movie, yet they also messed up the original idea of the comic and the movie into unrecognizable piece of garbage.
*sigh* Let's not talk that this looks bad from the get-go, but the problem lies with the plot they created. And also that character design is just a no, if you look too much like a Joker I mean, all those tatts and the crying tit.
Unlike the original comic and movie, where the tragedy takes place and two good people die, to make young people feel relatable the director made the two main characters junkies, who meet at the rehab, ok?! Meaning director thinks all young people would feel close to a character who came out of rehab... I'm speechless. He thinks all young people are addicts? Who knows what happens in US, but not in the world, in some countries people hate d* so much that you can't even begin to imagine how bad it is.
Also what the trailer showed. We have this posh couple, living in a pretty big and light apartment, they showed only bed scenes tbh and it looked like they're going to film OnlyFans content. And this is my problem with modern movies, why Hollywood shows love through sex so often lately. They bed, they bath, have corniest dialogues no real people would have. So far I don't feel sorry for them. It's also not really clear why they're dealt with together. A lot of additional shit about the afterlife, which is actually not needed except for time wasted on it, we know he will resurrect, why show it? Then of course Erik, played by Bill is resurrected and he.. has to save the soul of his gf, because the main guy eats souls of people to prolong his life? This was the idea that leaked online and looking at the trailer it might actually be true.
So... how does it look anything like Crow?
If it did not touch the original movie then fine. But sucking blood from the movie and emphasizing that it's about Brandon is just a low move. The soul of the original movie was crashed into dirt.
Not to mention that it looks bad and I hope it flops for real, but also the sad part is that it doesn't look anything special? It looks like many other blockbusters with fights, no special cinematography, nothing. It looks clean and posh. God, those Versace underwear still get to me every time. This couple can afford a big apartment when everyone knows how much it costs nowadays (doesn't director want to be relatable? how about relating in real estate? :D) and they look posh.
I can understand that young people nowadays might not even know the original movie and thus they won't care, since it was released 30 years ago. They often think that something new is new, while this new is just a repackaged old stuff, but it is also transformed beyond recognition.
I'm already super prejudiced towards the movie and maybe it is wrong to judge it so strongly before watching - like, how can you judge before watching. But the leaked ideas about the movie, how the trailers looks like, what director said made me prejudiced towards it.
The only funny part about it are the comments under the trailer on YT.