The Crow First Reviews – Critics Say Rupert Sanders’ New Reimagining Is a Flop

Rupert Sanders' reimagining of Alex Proyas' 1994 film The Crow is now in theaters, and fans who have been looking forward to seeing Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs take on the roles of Eric and Shelly have been left mystified as there have been no reviews or reactions until the early hours of this morning.

Now that the review embargo has lifted, it is clear that they had reason to be concerned.

The Crow currently has a rotten score of 22% on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes from 41 reviews that are predominately negative, matching the first reactions where critics say the new remake is "lacklustre", "tedious", and "uninspired".

Mashable's Kristy Puchko called the film "Ugly, incoherent, and ultimately cynical", and Witney Seibold at Slashfilm points out The Crow's "sloppy editing and a general lack of basic storytelling acumen".

Ryan Lattanzio from indieWire went as far as saying "The Crow is not a waste of talent or resources; worse, it just hangs there on the screen, as undead as Eric himself".

Lurking among the negativity, however, are some little slithers of light for fans who were hoping that this adaptation would be good.

Nerdist's DarkSkyLady says, "The Crow finds a way to build a world different from the one in the previous film, and it feels like the best decision. It has faults but manages to carve out a moving story with shocking action that feels genuine."

Ricky Valero at FandomWire had lukewarm praise for The Crow, saying it "is an imperfect, perfect love story with the sweet taste of revenge."

So overall, The Crow appears to be a dud, but, nonetheless, it is in theaters now for you to make up your own mind.

The Crow Review Roundup

• Collider: Struggling through an identity crisis, The Crow is doing too much and, as a result, doesn't do enough to serve its core narrative.
• Hollywood Reporter: The Crow is a sluggish, overly self-serious gloomfest that never takes wing.
• We Live Entertainment: With little stylization, a generic plotline removing much of what made the original comics at least standout, and the clearest feeling of “why watch this when I can watch that,” this is less of a bird that got away, and more like a bad egg altogether.
• Bloomberg News: A genuinely perplexing film. I mean that on a broad level: How did Hollywood struggle for decades to reboot this property and end up with such a lackluster product?
• Screen International: Brandon Lee's original was hard to shake because of his untimely demise. This forgettable new version doesn’t just fail to honour his memory -- it never justifies its existence on its own merits.