Saturday Sequel Presents The Crow: City of Angels Review

By Paul Anthony

In some ways this film was hard to watch and review because it makes you wonder the what ifs. I mean I have to ask what if Brandon Lee didn’t die on the set of the first film and could have returned for the sequel if indeed that was the goal for the series, but we may never know at this point. The first film was a success though it had other problems besides Lee’s death, it still was able to become a sleeper hit, which meant that sequel would be on its way. When the sequel got the green light, the studio made it clear that they wanted to this to be much different than the first film, basically it seemed like they wanted everyone to forget what happen with Lee. Now this film unlike the first film had no source material like the first which was based on the comic book series of the same name and we got another lead character which would be a theme throughout the series. In this film the Crow AKA Ashe Corven would be played by Vincent Perez. The film had a budget of 13 million and became a slight hit when it managed to make 25 million which was 25 million less than the first film. Nevertheless it made money but was it better than the first film?

The location of this film now takes place in Los Angeles, unlike the first film which takes place in Detroit, we also know this film takes place years after the first film because the only returning character from the first film is Sarah which she is now adult. In this film a father and son is killed when they witness crime, their bodies are dumped in the river. At this point Sarah gets a visit from a Crow, in which she follows the crow to the river where she gets to sees Ashe’s resurrection and his frantic escape, though she catches up to him and informs him that the power of the crow brought him back to life so he can get his revenge on those who did this to him and son. Slowly but surely Ashe understands and begins to get his revenge killing off the guys who killed him one by one. We learn these people are the henchmen of Judah Earl. Judah is a drug kingpin who when realizes someone is after him seeks out a blind prophetess whose name is Sybil who tells him everything about the crow and Ashe. Judah learns he can kill the crow which stripes Ashe of his powers but Judah also learns he can gain those powers from the blood of the crow and that is his plan. He kidnaps Sarah to draw out Ashe and the crow and he kills the crow and drinks his blood. Ashe and Sarah are forced to fight Judah as regular humans though they still managed to win but at the cost of Sarah dying to her injuries, the film ends with Ashe completing his mission and dying because now he can rest in peace with his son and Sarah.

Okay let’s start with the acting which seemed to be over the top. I don’t know if that was the bad acting or the script itself. The Sarah character was a miss fire because since she is a main character we needed to know why she came to Los Angeles so worth so more character development was needed, I guess you say the same for Ashe as well. The dark tone was just a little too much for my liking, everything seem to be on a more bible level just felt so odd and with no source material it felt that they were just making stuff up as they wrote the film. I believe the only reason why this film made money was because of the success of the first film. In the end I am giving this film a D for a grade, who knows maybe the next film will be better.