The Crow

Brandon Lee as The Crow

The Crow was the last film that Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee's son) would shoot before a freak accident during the filming of this movie killed him. There was irony surrounding Brandon's death, a case of art imitating death, because Brandon was supposed to marry his fiancee a week after he died. With The Crow's narrative, it was a story about a person coming back to life to seek vengeance for the death of both him and his fiancee. The Crow was originally a graphic novel that was written by James O' Barr as a way of dealing with the death of his fiancee at the hands of a drunk driver. It became an underground success in the Graphic Novel industry and would later be released in the mainstream market. Numerous graphic novels would then be released after the initial title proved to be a success. This would later on catch the attention of movie producers. Fresh off the heels of the successful Rapid Fire movie, Brandon Lee was signed on to star on the film thereafter. Brandon's movie (despite going through rewrites to fit in Brandon's body double) became an overnight success that it spawned 3 sequels and a T.V. series. I've seen each one of those sequels and the T.V. series, but still nothing compares to the work of Brandon during the first movie.

Eric Draven

The Crow was a movie that actually borders on graphic violence as it was based upon the Graphic Novel with the same level of violence. The initial plot of the movie was quite disturbing considering the death of Brandon that a lot of the crew decided to not continue the film after Brandon's death. It was eventually toned down when they decided to finish the film. The producers instead made it more gothic and accessible to the mainstream audience. The movie proved to be a huge success. The three sequels that followed however had excessive violence and was not as successfully accepted as the first. Thankfully though the sequels did not tarnish Brandon's work as The Crow, as those three had different protagonists who became The Crow. The succeeding movies featured Vincent Perez as Ashe Corven (The Crow: City of Angels), Eric Mabius as Alex Corvis (The Crow: Salvation), and Edward Furlong as Jimmy Cuervo (The Crow: Wicked Prayer). There was also a short lived (though positively accepted by the fans) 22 episode T.V. series that was headlined by B-Movies action star Mark Dacascos. The T.V. series was a direct continuation of Brandon's version of the crow with Mark Dacascos playing the role of Eric Draven. Brandon's version though is still the best of them all because the movie's plot was heavily based on the original story of The Crow. And most of all, because it was played by a credible star like Brandon Lee.

The Crow, a walking dead seeking vengeance

Brandon played the role of Eric Draven, a rock musician who was about to marry his fiancee Shelly Webster on the day after Halloween before they were brutally murdered by thugs and drug addicts. Stabbed and bleeding near to death, he could only watch paralyzed as the thugs abused his girlfriend. They both died eventually. Because of his great love for Shelly, even in death, Eric's thirst for vengeance was so great that a magical crow would resurrect him from the dead a year after his death to give him a chance to avenge his death and that of his fiancee. This magical crow would grant Eric invulnerability as long as it is kept safe from harm. He would one by one stalk the thugs involved in his and his fiancee's death and brutally killed them. Leaving marks that shapes like a crow. This would be taken noticed by Top-Dollar, a local crime boss who eventually would reveal that he had a hand in the murders of Eric and Shelly. He rounds up his men on another crime spree, this time targeting The Crow by abducting the only other person closest to him, a kid name Sarah. The climax of the movie had Eric saving Sarah and fights against Top-Dollar where he successfully completes his revenge by killing him. This would eventually set his soul free and have it return to join Shelly in the afterlife.    

Reflections of the crow

A short lived T.V. series was then made as a follow up to Brandon's The Crow character. This time, Eric Draven was played by Mark Dacascos. The T.V. series expounded on Eric's exploits as The Crow. In the T.V. series, The Crow's return was not only for vengeance's sake, but also for his own personal redemption. The succeeding sequels on the other hand are not on par with the original movie. It was at best for Direct-to-video release. The sequels also do not feature Eric Draven as The Crow. It had different protagonists but had the same common situations before they were resurrected by The Crow. I won't be tackling on their stories though. The Crow as a character to this very day continues to enjoy a cult following and to my knowledge, a remake of the first movie is in development. But Brandon's The Crow will continue to be the definitive Crow of this generation. In my opinion, it would be so hard to top off what Brandon did to this character. He totally owned The Crow. The circumstance of his death will forever draw a connection to this character. His legend will forever be etched with The Crow.

More Photos:

NECA The Crow Reflections Box Set

Back print of the box

Eric Draven and The Crow unleashed

Eric Draven's Reflection as The Crow

The Crow's Reflection as Eric Draven

The Masquerade Mask that would inspire the face paint of The Crow

I have come to seek vengeance

Without The Crow's power, I can beat you

But the Crow is immortal

Stare at the eyes that seeks vengeance

You go down and fall asleep...

Because vengeance is mine

The toy review for this entry is a continuation of my previous review of the Brandon Lee/Eric Draven action figure. As i've said in the previous entry, the reason why I bought this Box Set was because of the Brandon Lee figure. I treated the Crow figure as the bonus. But what a bonus it is. The Crow action figure features superbly detailed sculpts. It's actually a thing of a beauty as you watch it's intricate details washed over the body by a mix of cloth, leather, duct tape, and twine. The trench coat is made of a semi rubbery plastic that compliments the figure really well. This figure shares the same articulation as the Eric Draven figure. It features articulations on the neck (swivel), shoulders (swivel), wrists (swivel), waist (swivel), hips (swivel) and ankles (swivel). Fittingly, the figure comes with a Crow accessory, which is also nicely done. The dressing table is also packed with minutely detailed paraphernalia such as candles, make up kit, and other items that Eric used during his appearance's transformation into The Crow. This figure, though out of place in my collection, is actually quite good to have. Though this figure is not really in line with my toy collecting interest (I stay away from haunting figures), it's a definite keeper for me because it compliments my Brandon Lee collection.