The Crow: Salvation (2000)

Now let's be real, there's only one good Crow film. They were just never able to catch that midnight magic again, though they tried, with four more films and a dud of a TV series. Each of the sequels is nearly the exact same as the first, in terms of plot: a man is killed by feral urban thugs, only to be resurrected one year later by a mysterious crow, blessed with invincibility and begins to work his way through the merry band of scumbags in brutal acts of revenge, arriving at the crime lord sitting atop the food chain, usually a freak with vague ties to the supernatural or occult. All the films in the series are structured that way, but only one deviated and tried something slightly different with the formula. City of Angels, the second, is a boring, almost identical retread of the first, it's only energy coming from a coked up Iggy Pop. Wicked Prayer, the fourth, had a premise with potential aplenty, and turned out so maddeningly awful I'm still dabbing the blood from my eye sockets. Salvation, however, is the third entry and almost finds new air to breathe by altering the premise slightly. Instead of lowlife criminals, it's a posse of corrupt police detectives who frame an innocent dude (Resident Evil's Eric Mabius) for crimes they themselves committed, fry him to a crisp in the electric chair and get off scott free. His girlfriend (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) is also killed in the process. Now, not only is it cops instead of criminals, but the arch baddie at the top of the pile is the police commissioner, who has occult written all over him. *Not only* that, but he's played by Fred Ward, who is brilliant in anything. While nowhere near an iota of the atmosphere or quality of the first film, this one works better than any of the other sequels, thanks to that spark of an idea that changes the game ever so much. The detectives are a nice and skeevy bunch too, played by the reptilian likes of William Atherton, Walton Goggins and others. Ward wears the starched, proper uniform of an authoritative figure, but his eyes gleam with the same secrets and dark magic we saw in the two other previous underworld kingpins, Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) and Judah Earl (Richard Brooks), but it's that contrast that takes you off guard and makes things more intriguing. And as for Eric, does he hold his own with the others who've played the role? Mabius he does, Mabius he doesn't, you'll just have to watch and see. He definitely knocks Vincent Perez out of the park, that silly Frenchman. Real talk though, no one will ever dethrone Brandon Lee, not even whatever pisant they get for the remake that's been hovering on the fringes of preproduction for the last half decade. On top of it all we also get Kirsten Dunst, of all people, as a sympathetic attorney who works alongside Mabius to clear his name, as he clears the streets of no-good crooked cops. So there you have it. If you ever find yourself meandering around the kiosks in blockbuster, and see the Crow films lined up on the shelves like emo ducks in a row, the first film will naturally already be rented out. Where then to turn? You can certainly do worse than this one.

I won't say this movie is a rip-off of the first movie,it's not,they TRY make a version more faithful to the source material.The failure is epic.The main character try be more menacing,but like so many things in this movie isn't good enough.This is worse than being another bad sequel because not only is inferior to first but also inferior to what could be.This had the potential to be a high point in the franchise. Instead we have a halfhearted executed movie with good and average actors (some great films were made with less talent). Suggestion , compare the first ,the original graphic novel and this movie and you will see what i am talking about.

The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot. The crow cant be preppy and have short hair, who's ever idea it was to cast Eric Mabius is a complete idiot.

After murder his girlfriend(Jody Lynn O'Keefe), a young named Alex Corvis(Eric Mabius) is condemned electric chair. The execution is watched by her father(William Atherton) and her sister(Kirsten Dunst). But he returns to life and rises from death in order to seek vengeance on those who murdered his fiancée and wrongly framed him like killer and battling nasties hoodlums and corrupts policemen from inner city.As always, one time resurrected is guided by a spectral crow. Alex with tragic melancholy pulls off bloody revenge,one by one, killing violently enemies.This is a dark , rainy, colorful film with mostly scenes developing into the night. The movie packs loads of violence, grisly killing, blood and gore. Based on the black and white comic strip by James O'Barr. Spectacular production design with strong style and creepy sepia-toned by magnificent cinematography in charge of Carolyne Chen though quite gloomy. Eerie music score by Marco Beltrani, adding heavy rock soundtrack. The motion picture is professionally directed by Bharat Nalluri, usual television movies director(Tsunami). The original movie ¨The Crow¨(1994,Alex Proyas) with Brandon Lee(died accidentally shortly before was complete) is much better, but this one is better than ¨The Crow 2: City of Angels¨(1996,Tim Pope)with Vincent Perez ,and followed by TV series with Mark Dacascos; and recently, in production, a new sequel by Rod Zombie.