REVIEW DATE: 7:15:0:1
They made a third Crow movie. You knew this, right?
If you did, congrats. You read the same nerd magazines I read (either that, or you were lucky enough to live near the two theaters that ran this flick). If it hadn't been for the now-defunct Eon Magazine I'd have been surprised as hell to find The Crow: Salvation in my local New Release section.
Eon took the surprise away, but none of the apprehension. Whenever someone says "sequel to The Crow" I get all squirmy. Flashbacks of City of Angels play in my head. I scrunch up into a little ball and pray to whatever pagan god rules the world of entertainment. It's probably Pan, the little goat legged dude. So to the Goat God I pray, Please, oh please, don't let it suck.
Salvation opens with twenty-one year-old Alex Corvis (a-hem) convicted of his girlfriend, Lauren (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe)'s murder and sentenced to death by electrocution. Do not kill anyone in the state of Utah. It's the 21st century, but the great Mormon republic of Utah will still fry your ass if you fuck up. The old testament is alive and well in Utah, friends and neighbors, oh yes, oh yes. Can I get an a-men?
Oh. Sorry. You'll forgive my temporary bout of moral outrage at the state-sponsored death dealing that is capital punishment, won't you? Of course you will. But here we were talking about a movie and I let the stupid real world bleed in again. Silly, silly me.
Okay. So Alex (Eric Mabius) gets chickenfried and locked in the prison morgue...only to wake again, with a new black-feathered friend at his side. Together, bird and zombie escape the prison and Alex's quest begins. He didn't really kill his girlfriend. They had a fight, sure, but he wouldn't kill her. He loved her. But they had a fight, she left him, and then someone (someone with a distinct pattern of scars running up his left arm) knocked Alex out and planted a knife in his car.
Under the directions of his winged avatar, Alex breaks into a police evidence room and procures some items. One is the witness list for his trial. The other is a six-inch blade, which someone used to stab his girlfriend fifty-three times. With these in hand, he goes forth to dispense some poetic justice.
Unlike the previous two Crows, writer Chip Johanson (the guy responsible for Millennium's third season) tried to break out of the series mold and turn this thing into a murder mystery. Not everyone dies at the hands of a gang. Sometimes it just takes one person to slaughter the innocent. But, as things play on, we find that Alex is the victim of a conspiracy involving dirty cops, dirty money and...a gang of thugs who murdered his girlfriend.
So much for breaking out of the mold. The only real difference between this and the other two Crows is that this time (oh boy, are ya ready for this?) the murderous thugs are on the other side of the law. Wow, boy, that's some original stuff, right there.
Funny thing though...in terms of the series...that is pretty original. It's a pretty sad thing to speculate at but...is this as much originality as we can expect from this franchise? This business of just telling the same story over and over with itty bitty little pieces capped on to give the illusion of originality? Is it just impossible for people to expand this premise beyond the formula?
I know the answer to the last one. Do any Google search and you'll find gigs of fan-fiction on this subject that ranges from basic rip-offs to crossovers, to stuff that'll blow your mind out the back of your head. Drive down to Barns & Noble and you'll see five novels bearing the flying bird logo, written by the likes of David Bischcof and Poppy Z. Brite. And, hell, James O'Barr is still kicking.
As for the writing here, Chip Johanson is not very heavy on character. His villains are all one dimensional, but villains have never been more than skeet in these movies. Unfortunately, Our Hero is basically character-less, and that really sticks in my craw. Just who is this Alex Corvis? What does...did...he do for a living? At least the first two movies gave us sketches of our main character. And if you're going to write us a mystery, could we make it a little...oh, I don't know...mysterious? And....Alex Corvis? C'mon.
Not that this flick isn't engaging. Far from it. Hell, I enjoyed this movie. I really, really did. Sure, it's flawed as hell, but, cripes I do love this concept. I'm all for undead avengers dulling out cosmic justice. And, as undead avengers go, we could all do a lot worse than Eric Mabius. His plays Alex with the same kind of emotional instability that endeared me to Brandon Lee. Alex is not all there, if you know what I mean and I think you do. Mabius has the ability to go from raving mad man to heartsick lover without skipping a beat. Even without character in his character, Mabius puts enough emotion and pathos into Alex to not only makes me care, but make me like the poor slob and feel sorry for his death.
Other actors aren't so lucky. Especially those who don't have Mabius's ability to make Johanson's overly lyrical dialogue sound good. Kirsten Dunst is the worst example of this, because (as the dead love's sister) she has the most screen time. Grant Shaud (of Murphy Brown fame) does a lot better because he has a grand total of about six lines. About the only supporting character that doesn't embarrass himself is Fred Ward, stepping up to play this flick's Top-Dollar.
As the unnamed police captain (whom I dubbed Captain Evil, as in, "Yes sir, Captain Evil," or "Captain Evil needs those reports on his desk by 9:30") who just happens to know about the Crow, Ward expands beyond the confines of his character. He has two whole dimensions, one up on the rest of the Evil Cops on his force.
Last but not least is director Bharat Nalluri. His action scenes are nicely coherent, and he can keep the camera still enough during the script's tender moments. Though he does go over the top with the Spontaneously Combusting Cop Cars scene. Stand out scenes include a shot through a bullet hole in Alex's head and the washed out love flashbacks. Flashbacks are always good. We need Love to counterbalance the violent goings on; something that other crow sequel didn't under stand.
This is no City of Angels. That's for damn sure. Salvation is a prime example of how scarred Hollywood is of trying new things. A good lead actor, nice supporting villain, some nice visuals and crisp directing can't completely balance the unoriginal elements that weight down this script. All the series really needs is a writer with an idea and the courage to run with said idea. Too bad this flick's failure might just be the final nail in the franchise's coffin.
But, hell, who knows? Maybe it'll rise again.
Hey, a cliched closing sentence is better than no closing sentence at all.
Gs (out of a possible five)
MOCK O METER
Own it later on VHS or own it now on DVD