The original THE CROW will always be remembered as the movie that killed Brandon Lee. While that may be true, the 1994 Crow film was tightly controlled by creator James O’Barr (who first brought the Crow to life in the pages of underground comic books in the 1980’s). O’Barr worked together on the production with stylish director Alex Proyas, and the resulting motion picture proved to be one of the best genre films of 1994. When you watch THE CROW and remember that this is Brandon Lee’s final performance, you realize just how special THE CROW is. It was a huge mistake to take this film and create a franchise around it. With each inferior sequel or TV series that Disney/Dimension put out, further tarnishes the image of the original film. If THE CROW: CITY OF ANGELS put the nail in the coffin, then the 2001 film (making it’s controversial premiere on video) puts a spike through the skull of the franchise. THE CROW: SALAVATION plays more like an alternative rock version of I WAS A TEENAGE ZOMBIE. Anyway, after viewing the final cut of this third outing, Disney/Dimension realized that no one was going to pay $8.00 dollars to see this thing and wisely opted for the direct-to-video route. They also used this opportunity to once again rerelease the entire franchise on DVD and VHS. This time though, the DVD releases proved to be full blown special editions. Dimension Home Video packed THE CROW sequels with all the special features that could possibly fit on the DVDs to help make these discs an easier sell.

Twenty-one-year-old Alex Corvis (Eric Mabius) gets sentenced to the electric chair for stabbing his girlfriend to death. He is really innocent of course, and is merely the scapegoat in some dark conspiracy. Alex was assaulted from behind, when his girlfriend Lauren (Jody Lynne O’Keefe) was murdered. He never got to see who the murderer was, only that the killer had hideous scarring on his arm. Like all THE CROW films, Alex returns from the dead to avenge his death and the death of his loved ones. Now, a fully rejuvenated super zombie, Eric embarks on a mission to find those individuals responsible for the murder of Lauren. Along with Lauren’s sister (Kirsten Dunst), Alex discovers a conspiracy spearheaded by a corrupt police captain (Robert Foster). To unravel the mystery, Alex must confront all the law enforement officers in this corrupt city!

Part of the problem lies with writer Chip Johannesen, whose biggest achievement was being a staff writer on BEVERLY HILLS 90210. As a result, THE CROW: SALVATION has a very teen-oriented look and feel. Johannesen pillages ideas from THE FUGITIVE--only this time instead of Dr. Kimball searching for a one armed killer, an undead Alex Corvis searches for a killer with a scarred arm. The murder mystery subplot in THE CROW: SALVATION is a wasted effort because the audience knows who it is very early on. Johannesen’s script is full of cheesy poetic dialog that comes across like one-liners. The tender moments of the film between Alex and Lauren will make you ill. The bad guys are all one-dimensional paper villains, and none of them even try to hide the fact threat they are no good. Several of these evil characters are rip-offs of characters from the first film, right down to the evil-but-beautiful female assistant that all lead wackos have.

Corvis spends the film in a daze tracking down his girlfriend’s murderer. Meanwhile, the audience has guessed who it is after the first 10 minutes, thus removing all suspense in the film. Later on, Fred Ward’s corrupt police captain casually explains how the dead can come back to life with the proper motivation. Perhaps his character watched the first two Crow films. Then he comes up with this theory (literally out of nowhere) on how to strip the Crow of his supernatural powers, and the Crow falls for it! In another intensely stupid moment, a group of criminals form a corporation called D.E.R.T. These letters are glimpsed throughout the film, yet no one ever stops to pronounce it for fear of how stupid it would sound in a dialog exchange. Chip Johannesen should never be allowed to write a screenplay again!

In THE CROW:SALVATION we get a nasty Crow who enjoys killing his victims and bystanders alike to boost up the body count and gore scenes. The Crow himself is more violent and vindictive this time around. Besides taking his revenge on the people who killed Lauren, he also takes out anyone who stand in his way (including police officers). He also gets off on intimidating his victims. Like Freddy Krueger, he resorts to maiming himself to instill fear in his victims. And like Freddy, this gives him the opportunity for one-liners. Erik Draven possessed a poetic haunting irony. The Alex Corvis Crow is all death, doom, and destruction, but without all any soul or character. This contradicts the whole "love-is-stronger-than-death" theme of this series.

The performances are equally flawed. Eric Mabius puts forth a valiant effort, but his efforts are undermined by either the amateur acting or the over-acting. Kirstin Dunst just becomes more of an irritating actress as she gets older. In once scene, a villain sews her mouth shut--and you will subconsciously applaud that deplorable act. Fred Ward overacts worse than Jim Carrey. Director Bharat Nuri avoids panoramic shots to create a cramped claustrophobic look and tone. Unfortunately, this backfires and gives the film a direct-to-video look. Even some odd camera angles and sweeping CGI shots can’t redeem this B movie feel. Gone is the bleak and poetic tone of the original, to be replaced with a glossy, generic look. Alex Proyas’ original film succeeded in defining an atmospheric, urban landscape that could well be another planet. Bharat Nuri tries hard to mimic Proyas’s style, but his limited technical execution can’t get it done.

There are several trailers for other Dimension properties including THE PROPHECY 3 (full frame, DD 2.0, 1:05), TALE OF THE MUMMY (full frame, DD 2.0, 1:07), EXISTENZ (full frame, DD 2.0, 1:04), BLACK JACK (full frame, DD 2.0, 1:19), and SCARY MOVIE (full frame, DD 2.0, 1:40). From the Special Features menu, you can select from several documentaries. First is the Production Design Featurette (full frame, DD 2.0, 2:46) that shows how the designers constructed the atmospheric sets. Then you can view the one called Who’s That Bird (full frame, DD 2.0, 8:02). This one compares all three CROW films (is there any real comparison to the original?) and shows film clips from all 3 films. I’m gonna go out on a limb and bet that Dimension included this on each of the remastered DVDs. The next one focuses on THE CROW: SALVATION only, and is appropriately named Behind the Scenes Featurette (full frame, DD 2.0, 8:11). This documentary shows scenes from the film and features interviews with Eric Mabius, producer Jeff Most, and director Bharat Nalluri. The final documentary is entitled, Behind the Make-Up (full frame, DD 2.0, 2:03), and shows how Tom Rainone developed the make-up worn by Eric Mabius. You can also access some DVD-ROM features, the most important of which is the screenplay. Lastly, the audio commentary is a bloody mess. It features Eric Mabius, Bharat Nalluri, Jeff Most, production designer Maia Javan, and composer Marco Beltrani. It’s a case of too many chefs spoiling the stew. With five commentators, it makes it difficult to absorb information, and the viewer spends two much time keeping track of who said what. This is mainly about the technical end of production (which is essentially the most flawed). The commenatary may prove worthwhile to fans of this film. Except for the confusing commentary, the DVD offers an effective amount of quality supplemental features.

-  Phil Chandler