THE CROW Blu-ray Review

The Crow is a great film.  I've never read the source material, a graphic novel series by James O'Barr, but I understand that this film is somewhat close to it.  Brandon Lee's iconic final performance is captured in all its dark intensity.  Alex Proyas, whose debut American feature Dark City is now hailed as a sci-fi classic, took O'Barr's comic and turned it into something very evocative and highly stylized.  The Crow is more akin to the old radio plays like The Phantom or The Shadow than it is to modern comic book hero films.  The dark atmosphere of the film and the book translates well on screen.  Lionsgate released The Crow for the first time on US Blu-ray this week, and honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with their treatment of the film. It improves upon the DVD significantly, but it leaves a lot to be desired, both in terms of image quality and extra material.  It is an upgrade?  Surely. It bums me out that they didn't really do it justice, though.

Before Sin City and The Dark Knight rose, there was The Crow - the 'dark, lurid revenge fantasy' (The New York Times) from director Alex Proyas (Dark City) that entranced audiences and critics alike. Featuring Brandon Lee in his final, tragic performance, The Crow is the tale of young musician Eric Draven (Lee) who, along with his fiance, is murdered on the eve of their Halloween wedding. Exactly one year after their deaths, Eric is risen from the grave by a mysterious crow to seek out his killers and force them to answer for their crimes.

Brandon Lee never quite made the splash his father did.  That would truly be a tall order, though, since his Dad changed the course of an entire film industry single handed in the 1970's.  However, Brandon did manage to carve out a nice little niche for himself in low budget action films. The Crow was going to be his ticket to the big time, and had he survived, I really think he would have earned it.  I don't want to go into the dirty details regarding his death, but it is hard not to at least mention it when talking about The Crow. Suffice it to say, I think he could have made a career for himself as a top tier action star, and it is sad that he didn't.

Alex Proyas' directorial decisions in The Crow are part of the reason for its success.  He made the conscious choice not to use CG in an age where it was still growing, and not quite viable for photorealistic effects. Because of this, the film was shot using a number of different in camera effects, including a lot of miniatures and plates. Like Dark City, the film looks like it could have been shot in the 1940's, it has the Noir feel about it, something which I very much appreciate.  Unfortunately, this often translates to a less than stellar and spotless image.

All of the characters in the film are more caricatures than anything else, which makes this look more like a gothic Dick Tracy than The Dark Knight.  I think it works in this case though.  There are a number of fabulous character actors; Jon Polito, Tony Todd, Ernie Hudson, that lend the film a certain cache. Bai Ling's absurd turn as Myca is even appropriate here, and I almost never say that about anything Bai Ling does. It all clicks, except for the few moments when it becomes obvious that shots of Eric Draven (Lee) had to be shot with body doubles, which is at this point both dubious looking and a little sad.

The Disc:

I really don't know what to say about this disc.  The image is dark and dank, and doesn't show much life.  I know the film is dark, and if it does anything well, it is capturing the black level of The Crow.  However, there is very little fine detail to be seen anywhere in the film, even during the very few well-lit sequences. I was looking for it, but it just wasn't there. The effects, especially the plates and miniatures are more evident in this HD upgrade, but I kind of like that, it gives the film a more organic feel.  The audio is a bit of a boost, with a special focus on the grunge-tastic mid-90's soundtrack featuring The Cure and Nine Inch Nails covering Joy Division, et al. I wish I had more good to say, it is an upgrade, but it isn't night and day.

The extras are also a bit disappointing.  The Crow has a very troubled home video history.  Apparently there are a lot of already produced bonus featurettes that belong to one producer who is not being friendly with the rest of the production staff and they have been kept from the viewing public for this reason. At least that's how I understand it, it is some kind of contract dispute. As a result, we get recycled bonus material that has been on DVD for years.  It isn't bad, per se, but it is just old, and this film has a great following who would really appreciate the extra stuff. If you've seen the bonus material from the 2 disc DVD, you know what you're getting, but this is what you could've gotten:

• NEW "From Beyond the Grave" interview with creator James O'Barr
• NEW "Adaptation" Featurette on the writing and development of the film
• NEW "Citizens of Detroit" Featurette on the cast
• NEW "The Man Who Was Eric" Featurette on Brandon Lee
• NEW "Urban Decay" Featurette on the production design and visuals
• NEW "Tragedy" - a look back at the untimely death of Brandon Lee
• NEW "Mood Music" Featurette on the film's score
• NEW "Recover & Release" Featurette on how the production proceeded after Lee's death
• NEW Audio Commentary with director Alex Proyas

Seems a shame, doesn't it?  Anyway, it is tough for me to wholeheartedly recommend this one, even though it is an upgrade from the DVD. All I can think of is how much better it should have been.