The Crow: Salvation revisited

Here we are with our 3rd revisit, The Crow: Salvation

What I said then..........

We first see Alex in his cell, playing chess with his lawyer and awaiting the walk to the execution chamber. Eric Mabius does a great job conveying the emotions of his impending doom and his frustration in not apprehending the real killer of his girlfriend. His focus is more on this failure than his impending execution. This establishes his love for Erin Randall and shows us his motivation for coming back while creating a connection with the audience before his death. This is a new twist for "The Crow" movies. Previously, we were not introduced to the title character before his death. Eric Mabius neither looks nor acts like his predecessors. There is much irony and wry glee in what Eric's character is doing. Mabius' intense eyes add to the unsettling image of his Irony scared face smiling at his enemies (Alex's face is burned by the helmet he wears during his execution, giving him the famous "clown from hell" look). I found Kirsten Dunst believable and genuine. Fred Ward is his usual feisty self. One observation I had was that the characters in this film are more realistic than the cartoon figures of previous Crow movies. The characters in "Salvation" are more identifiable with people with which we have everyday contact. Even the title character is not decked out in the "gothic" attire of the past. All of the soundtrack songs are appropriately placed in the movie. A prime example of this is the song "Antihistamine" by Tricky. It perfectly enhances the tone of the scene it is in. The ending is a vast improvement over that of COA's and is very satisfying. The new director, Baharat Nalluri, brings some innovative visual elements to Salvation, such as a new Crow-vision style, as well as other personal touches. All of these changes, as well as the previously discussed story elements, helped to make Salvation a very enjoyable viewing experience for me.

Overall rating 3 1/2 Crows

What I say today...........

This film has kind of been an up and down enjoyment for me. We were pretty active in the promotion of the film back in 1999/2000. So there was a personal connection to the film. This film had an air of controversy in that Dimension strung Pressman and Most along making them think it would get a theatrical release. It received only one release, in Spokane, Washington. Hardly a true testing ground for the film especially given the very minimal promotion it was given. The star and producers had to literally walk the streets handing out posters since no real promotion was being done by the studio. In the end, there was no intent for this film to be released theatrical. It's sole purpose was to be shot so they would have a 3rd film for a boxed DVD set. The cast and crew, despite all of that, rose above that and gave us a worthy addition to the Crow franchise. I have gone through periods where my enjoyment of Salvation has waned. But today I can say it is definitely a fun movie to watch. It is different from the first two in that it has a "normal" element about it. They tried to get away from a lot of the otherworldly aspects of the first two and they do that successfully. The score is my least favorite of the 4 films, but it works for what it is intended to be. The soundtrack is packed with some very good songs, though at times it seems they are trying to get every single one of the songs into the movie and it hops from soundtrack or score and never seems to have any quiet moments. The movie brought in a new element of mystery to the franchise and that was a welcome change. I think the mystery is a bit deluded though in that every step is easy to figure out. Were it me, I would have gone a different route and pointed to the Capt as the main bad guy but then pulled a switch on the audience and revealed it was Alex's lawyer that was pulling the strings. Mabius put a lot into this film, especially post production. He made himself available for every possible promotional venture. The film was shown at the 2000 Dragon Con and received overall positive responses. It ended up going on to be the highest selling action direct to video title of 2000.

I would say 3 1/2 Crows is still a spot on opinion today.

The Collector's DVD release of the film gave us a very good commentary track with the director, star, composer, producer and production design lead chiming in. It was the most complete commentary of the first 3 films. The other extras are short, but informative (the "making of" is disappointingly very short). As with the other two films that are part of the boxed set, there is a script DVD rom feature that is very nice. Would be great to see this on Blu Ray when/if that happens. You can read my full review of the DVD here.