The Crow Review

A classic emo grunge nostalgia trip!

To start off I want to tell you why I’m doing this. I am a lover of film and this has always been a passion of mine. I went so far as to work on hollywood productions in VFX and on commercials. This passion is something that has stayed with me and would love to share my thoughts and opinions on media I hold dear to my heart, so here is my first outing.

First review out from me will be the modern gothic tale that started as an indie comic and grew into an icon of a movie.

I was never totally into the grunge stuff at that time. But something about this movie speaks to me. 1994 was a special year for movies. That year we got Leon, Pulp Fiction and Forest Gump, just to name a few.

Even though I wasn’t a fan at that time I adore the movie now and it’s achievement in mood, artistry and soundtrack. The stellar performance that sadly was the last one from Brandon Lee is a joy to watch even if it’s in a meta kind of morbid way. Alex Proyas as a director shines with his wonderful musicvideo like direction and young energetic feeling. I see a lot of similarities here that was adopted in the visuals in his other in my opinion classic; Dark City. (also worth a watch)

Story is fairly straight forward. Eric Draven is brought back to life in a mysterious way by a crow that lends him a chance to seek revenge on those who killed him and his then pregnant girlfriend. They got killed the day before their wedding which makes it even more tragic. The city is a character of its own filled with crime, scumbags and tragic family drama. But in all that the man calling himself the crow brings hope with him.

So is the new 4k bluray worth it?

Video

Paramount released a great 2160p/Dolby Vision version of this film. A newly rescanned version with great depth and clarity. For a film that is dark and contrasty it really holds up great with detailing and highlights. Well worth an upgrade and since I haven’t seen this movie in a long time I got surprised how well it held up with todays standards.

Yeah the movie is not perfect with some shots containing more prevelant grain than others but it’s to be expected. The HDR let itself loose on the great higlights and speculars and that alone with the sharpness of the 4k is worth it imo.

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It might be the same as on the older bluray and holds the typical 90s audio mixing used at the time. Punchy and fine but not too neuanced lacking the dynamic sounding atmospherics. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds good it’s just not up there with other great mixes.

Overall

If you like the gothic narrative themes of longing and revenge, then this is well worth checking out if not for the acting (which can be a little hammy at times) then for the visual presentation and atmosphere. For me it holds a special place in my heart because of nostalgia and the love of contrast filled cinematography.