The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)

While THE CROW is one of the freshest anti-superhero movies of the 1990s, the various sequels and spin-offs that have followed it have been of mixed quality. This effort, the last to date, is by far the worst, an ill-conceived and frankly stupid effort to tell the same kind of story on a little budget. After a super-stylish opening sequence – by far the best thing in the film, it gave me hope that this might be actually good – we're thrown into a stomach-churning mess of repellent, off-screen violence, idiotic characters, a distinct lack of anybody to root for, and a kind of rubbery, B-movie atmosphere. The two things to blame the most for this are the script, which is profanely diabolical, and the direction, which is of sub-film school quality.It's a real shame, because there's a B-movie cast who might have done better with different material. First up is Eddie Furlong, everybody's favourite John Connor, all grown up with an angsty streak. Sadly, he seems to be struggling to bring life (ha ha) to his role as The Crow, and he just comes across as irritating. He's less irritating, though, than the bad guys, who truly are a despicable bunch, and not in a good way; you want to stave their heads in every moment they're on screen. Worst of the lot is David Boreanaz, giving an abominable performance which, by rights, should have sunk his career. Over-the-top isn't the phrase for his appalling overacting on show here. Just as bad is the hopeless Tara Reid, clearly out of her depth and floundering; sadly nobody gives her a lifeline, and by the end the suggestion that we're supposed to empathise with her is, well, just ridiculous.There are familiar faces lower down the cast list: requisite Japanese guy Yuji Okumoto (ROBOT JOX) as a henchman, and the always-great Danny Trejo as an Indian priest. Even the likes of Macy Gray (annoying) and Dennis Hopper (embarrassed) pop up in the final reel to no avail. The action consists of people being thrown through the air or innocent folk being shot, and apart from a single neck break, all of the violence and bloodshed is kept off screen, no doubt for budget reasons (although it looks like it's been censored more than anything else). The ending is particularly excruciating. The one memorable scene – for all the wrong reasons – sees Danny Trejo's priest performing an ancient Indian dance over the body of a dying bird; it's the one moment that got a genuine chuckle from this viewer.

This isn't as good as I remembered it to be. The movie does have a few problems (eg, the spaghetti western style introductions to the antagonists, flashbacks containing lines of dialogue that really weren't in the original scenes) but I did find it in me to like this movie. Sure maybe not as much as the other Crow movies but I still thought it was pretty good.Now I maybe getting a bunch of people really angry at me for liking this movie (I don't get angry about anybody else's movie taste, I might have in my earlier years of reviewing but not now) . This is my opinion (and to some extent a guilty pleasure, how can you take Dennis Hopper seriously in this movie?).Now onto what I liked in this movie; basically I LOVED how they didn't make Cuervo an innocent. It does make him a little more 3 dimensional than what this movie. I also liked the change of setting and style to the other three movies (if you take out of account the opening).Basically, to me this movie is the ultimate B-movie for me to like. The writing could have been so much better than what it was (it was more on and off for me - meaning some writing in places was good - other times it was mediocre).So is it a movie to get all fancy about with these pseudo-"intellectuals" (I've met some "experts" they would have to be the worst people to talk about movies to)? The answer is "Oh GOD NO!" Is it a rather entertaining movie with many problems but good anyway? Yeah, I suppose so - well, it was for me.

The second Crow movie was awful without a doubt. It was boring, on a lower budget, and felt like it was being made only for a profit. However, despite the numerous errors of it was still watchable. Nothing in this movie makes any sense. From the Crow being a messenger of God (since when?) to him having to fight Satan (even though David Boreanaz character doesn't change at all) Edward Furlong actually seems like he might had been a good Crow if he was given a better script and if he laid off the drugs. The worst part about this movie was Tara Reid though. Tara Reid has never been a good actress but she is incredibly washed up and it shows from this movie. I know that Dennis Hopper has been in some turkeys as well but this must had been a new low for him.

Many people loved The Crow 1 so much partly because it created an illusion, and good/evil were more clearly divided, conventional in a way. Wicked Prayer is different to that experience, rough and seems to make fun of the whole thing. It leaves you highly unsatisfied the first few times you see it, as contains hardly any believable action-scene which could let you enjoy more.My vote would have been 10 if it didn't accentuate the tribal theme a bit too much at some points. The actors are well-casted. This is not what you expect, but The Crow in quite a poor environment. I found the little side blows on demonstrations, naivety and how many people imagine evil nicely done.As with all such movies, it's about what flavor you search for at a certain point of time in your life. If you want a pleasant experience, you will be disappointed.