Darkly operatic in moments, tediously sluggish in others, Rupert Sanders’ The Crow might not come close to the brilliance of the Brandon Lee-starring 1994 offering, but it’s not a complete waste. You see, the movie has its moments of violent grandeur, but they are unfortunately few and far between. The good news is that Bill Skarsgård wholly commits in the titular role, not only giving in to the requisite “tormented” performance, but adding plenty of bad ass brooding worthy of the comic book hero. Plus, the Swedish actor is sporting an impressively chiselled body full of tattoos and scars alike. All that to say that he’s a good fit for this ultra-gothic character, and in such, is easy to root for. That, of course, is half the battle – the other half is nailing the love story aspect (the reason for the violent spree of vengeance). I’d say they get pretty darn close, but there’s something missing. The chemistry with FKA Twigs is there, but the story’s drawn-out setup takes a lot of the “steam” away. Less could (and should) have been more here. The movie also has a villain problem, in that our “final boss” is not that interesting. In fact, he’s quite silly. I mean, his powers are that he can make people do bad things by whispering in their ear. Ok, so there’s a bit more to it, but it’s fairly lame any way you look at it. The biggest issue The Crow faces, however, is it’s monotonous pacing. Yes, it’s supposed to be a gloomy and moody viewing experience by design, but it shouldn’t be putting its audience to sleep. I won’t go as far as saying it’s dull, but it gets pretty close. Luckily, there’s an intriguing production design on display. It’s all very grimy and kinda ugly, but it works for this story and character. So yes, there is some great things at play here, you’ll just have to dredge through the muck to find them.