The Crow Reviews Have Been Worse Than Expected

The embargo has been lifted and the first reactions to this year’s reimagining of the beloved Gothic comic book movie The Crow have arrived. So, is the Bill Skarsgård-led tale of resurrection and revenge worthy of both the source material and the cherished 1994 outing? Or is The Crow the comic book movie dud that many have been expecting?

Unfortunately for a movie already facing a lot of opposition, it seems that critics are not willing to give the movie a break and have made things even worse for The Crow‘s box office chances as the movie debuted with a 6% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes (at the time of writing). While there is still time for this to change – before the 16th review dropped the movie was sitting on 0%- the first reviews are pretty unanimous in their opinion that The Crow is destined to remain grounded.

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney leads the negative wave of reviews, calling the movie a “sluggish,overly self-serious gloomfest.” This is followed up by The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee, who goes one step further to note that the film “is a total, head-in-hands disaster, incoherently plotted and sloppily made, destined to join the annals of the very worst and most pointless remakes ever made.”

And the same comments appear over and over throughout the first 15 reviews. From mentions of an incoherent plot, to criticisms of the film replacing the original movie’s “sense of anguish” with over-the-top gore, and the ever burning question of why the world needed a new version of The Crow at all.

Every movie has its fans, even the really awful ones, but The Crow doesn’t seem to be able to please anyone, including those without any kind of affinity with the 1994 Brandon Lee movie. How the film fares at this weekend’s box office against Alien: Romulus, It Ends With Us, and Deadpool & Wolverine will reveal how much audiences agree.

The Crow 2024

Bill Skarsgård takes on the iconic role of THE CROW in this modern reimagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr. Soulmates Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.

Release Date

August 23, 2024

Distributor(s)

Lionsgate

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The Crow Is Due to Land in Theaters From August 23

Based on the 1989 comic created by James O’Barr, the story of The Crow revolves around a young man named Eric, who is forced to watch his fiancée, Shelly, murdered by a gang of street thugs after their car breaks down. Eric is then shot and later dies in hospital. But he is soon resurrected by a mysterious crow and seeks vengeance on the murderers, stalking and killing them while dealing with the loss of Shelly. You can check out the official synopsis for the reimagining below:

“Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.”

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The Crow Star Bill Skarsgård Reveals His Biggest Regret About Playing the Character

Bill Skarsgård has some concerns about his portrayal of The Crow, which is due to land in theaters next month.

Directed by Rupert Sanders from a screenplay by Zach Baylin and Will Schneider, The Crow stars Bill Skarsgård (John Wick: Chapter 4, It) as Eric Draven, aka The Crow and FKA Twigs (Honey Boy) as Shelly Webster, as well as Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 30 Days of Night), Josette Simon (Wonder Woman), Laura Birn (Void, A Walk Among the Tombstones), Sami Bouajila (Ganglands), Isabella Wei (1899), and Jordan Bolger (The Book of Boba Fett, The Woman King).