A Review
by
The Editor: UK Atheist & Science E-Zine

The Crow, Collectors Box Set consists of all three films; The Crow , The Crow: City Of Angels & The Crow: Salvation. Each film has roughly the same storyline i.e. that the hero & someone he loves is killed and he is brought back via a mystical crow to wreak vengeance on those who brought about the evil deed.

The first film (The Crow) is, without doubt, the best of the series (with only one exception I'd care to name I consider that true with regard to all films & their sequels) and involves the return to life of a young man a year after he & his girlfriend were brutally killed. Despite the simplicity of the storyline the film is dark, enigmatic & full of character (albeit comic book ones) and follows the hero's brutal reprisals against the killers. There is an immediate connection with the hero, his problems, his loss & his consequent mission ... of course he has a weakness but in true cinematic style recovers sufficiently to overcome the final hurdles of his trial. Whilst I liked this film I feel it is sad that Brandon Lee (who plays the hero) was shot & died during its making. Full of witty (& dark) humour, tragedy & a visual treat it is the bst of the three films and deserves a place in anyone's collection of post apocalyptic mild horror films.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the second film (City of Angels), which is, quite simply, appalling. It retains little of the first film except some of the music and simply attempts to repeat (badly) the successful formula of the first. The addition of Ian Dury into a bit part role is mystifying as he is not a good actor and Iggy Pop is worse ... not only being unable to act but aiding the film to become a laughing stock in addition to its many other problems. It is difficult to identify with any of the films characters (good or bad) and even more difficult to care about their fate. Mr. Evil, to my mind wasn't, not only not evil but actually slightly camp which didn't gel with the role he was supposed to play ... even his seeress was notably "un-weird".

Somewhat surprisingly however, the third Crow film (Salvation) makes a rather stunning recovery. It is far less post apocalyptic than it's predecessors and the viewer is made to feel much more sympathetic to the plight of the undead/reborn hero. The characters in the film are well portrayed and the music, despite its more heavy metal feel, is well suited to the movie. It also differs inasmuch as nearly all the previous films deaths were of those that deserved to die but in Salvation there are many more dubious victims e.g. police under orders. Though it is not as good as the first film Salvation manages to come quite close and in marginal ways improves upon the first.

The overall quality of all the films (& the packaging) is good and includes a good number of supplemental features across the three discs. Sound is excellent (I believe it has DTS 5.1 as well as Dolby Surround though I couldn't test that on my setup). The picture quality is excellent and can be viewed in widescreen or full 16 x 9). In terms of extras on the discs there are interviews with the creator of the story, "making of" featurettes, commentaries, games, original poster concepts & more.

The second film in the series, City Of Angels, makes it hard to recommend the set unreservedly but despite that I feel that the set makes a fairly good addition to a DVD collection.