The Crow (2024)

The Crow is a love story first and a revenge movie second, and neither half has a heartbeat. Bill Skarsgård plays Eric Draven, a troubled young patient at a locked-down treatment center, who falls hard for Shelly Webster, a fellow patient and musician played by FKA Twigs. She’s carrying a phone video that incriminates Vincent Roeg, a polished crime boss with a centuries-old secret, played by Danny Huston. They slip out together, and the romance eats up the first half. Problem: critics found zero chemistry between the leads, and the dreary pacing makes every scene feel longer. By the time the title character shows up to settle the score, you’ve checked the clock twice. An opera house sequence shows what this movie could have been. Everything else is muddy nighttime photography. It holds 22% on Rotten Tomatoes and made $24.2 million worldwide on a reported $50 million. A 2.8 because one sharp set piece can’t revive a lifeless love story. $4,138 says you rewatch the 1994 original this weekend and spend the whole time defending it to nobody.

What works: The opera house sequence finally delivers the kind of stylish revenge set piece the whole movie should have been built around.

What doesn’t: Skarsgård and FKA Twigs share no chemistry, so the long love story at the center plays dead on arrival, and the muddy nighttime photography doesn’t help.

Who it’s for: Skarsgård completists and comic readers who collect every version, ideally watched at home with the lights on.