"The Crow: Salvation"
DVD Review
by Chris Alexis
| MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Eric Mabius as ALEX CORVIS/THE CROW Kirsten Dunst as ERIN RANDALL Fred Ward as THE CAPTAIN Grant Shaud as PETER WALSH William Atherton as NATHAN RANDALL Jodi Lynn O’Keefe as LAUREN RANDALL Bill Mondy as PHILLIP DUTTON R Studio: Dimension Directed by: Bharat Nalluri Back to DVD Review Home |
 |
With “The Crow: Wicked Prayer” recently being released, I decided to check it out. I’m a huge “Crow” fan, have been since I discovered the original Brandon Lee film in high school. The fourth installment was a horrible, ridiculous and terrible movie that didn’t deserve to have “The Crow” name on it.
After watching it, I decided to pull out the last direct-to-DVD Crow sequel, “The Crow: Salvation” to compare the two. While I remember at first not liking “Salvation” all that much, I’m going to amend my opinion.
Perhaps it’s the fact that I directly compared it to “Wicked Prayer” but I actually enjoyed “Salvation” quite a bit. Sure, it’s not the masterpiece that was the Brandon Lee original. However, I saw what they were trying to do here and I accepted that.
In all of the other “Crow” movies, the makeup or the “look” of the Crow had always been mime makeup that the newly anointed undead would apply before beginning a rampage of vengeance. Even though I love the first two Crow movies, I always felt this to be a bit odd. In this version, the marks on his face are burns. Much more effective.
Mabius makes a decent Crow. His acting chops are there and he has both a depth to his acting as well as a touch of humor that the series requires. He’s given some funky dialogue a few times, but that’s not his fault.
The director keeps this film moving. It never hits a slow point and keeps the action up to speed. The violence is at an appropriate level and the murder of Lauren Randall is effective. The film allows the character’s pain to be felt through the screen. No one is “phoning in” his or her lines so to speak.
The Special Features on the DVD aren’t lengthy, but they’re not bad. The commentary does something I’ve never seen personally: Included with the director and star of the film, they also have the production designer and more oddly, the composer of the film. While overall this is a very dry commentary, it does give you the standard “that’s neat to know” facts about the making of the film.
They also have a “Who’s The Bird” which is an interview with a trainer of crows in the film. A cute, short piece that runs about five minutes.
The “Behind the Make-up” clip shows how they designed the look of Corvis and why they made the decisions they did. Also runs approximately five minutes.
The “Production Design” selection isn’t much, just still shots from the movie with music under it, explaining what a production designer does. Not extremely impressive.
The “Behind the Scenes” featurette, however is pretty cool. Interviewing the cast and crew, it’s an interesting look behind the scenes, showing the shooting of the film. No one came across too pretentious in this, which is a big plus for me. This runs maybe twenty minutes.
There’s also a screenplay viewer and different weblinks for those with DVD-ROM abilities.
Overall, this film was undeserving of being robbed of a theatrical release. Again, it’s not even close to the original, but what third installment of a franchise is? It’s still an interesting and action-packed film that has its rightful place in “The Crow” saga.
Specifications: DTS & Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Widescreen (1:85:1) Enhanced for 16X9 Televisions. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
