Edward Scissorhands does Bladerunner -- badly!

The Crow
Directed by Alex Proyas
Reviewed by Graham Matthews

The Crow could have been a darkly disturbing film, chronicling the decay of the slightly futuristic inner city, in the style of Bladerunner. Unfortunately the only resemblance between the two films is the sets, which seem to be a remake of the former, but lacking in imagination.

Perhaps The Crow could have been a better film. The untimely death of its star certainly created problems for the director, adding to the untidy, chopped look of the film. As far as the plot, the politics and the imagery went however, all seriously lacked imagination.

The plot, if you could call it that, started fairly consistently, but seemed to lose itself somewhere around the middle of the film, in a blazing gun battle which seemed to have little point. Unfortunately it never recovered. The final scenes, converted what might have been dark tragedy into a spurious farce.

The politics of the film is perhaps best illustrated by its portrayal of women characters. We had the evil woman, the innocent child, the innocent victim (in white no less!) and the mother, who must be re-won to family values by our hero.

The imagery of the film was hackneyed. It drew (very obviously) from Bladerunner and Edward Scissorhands, while the last scene looked like a scene from a Mel Brooks' Hitchcock spoof. Overall the film had the look of a music film clip (low budget) that simply forgot to end.

If I never see another auto-gun battle again, it will be much too soon. The music was the film's only saving grace.

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