Oficial trailer is out

Just gave it a watch. I have a mixed reaction to it.

I think that the strength of what I saw was largely in the visuals. The trainyard stuff in the afterlife looks good. I don't mean artistically, I mean on a pure visual level, it looks like a bit of a feast. I would extend this to the lavish entrance hall that Eric is stalking up towards the end of the trailer, too. It's obvious that they've dropped a lot of money and effort into making the film look slick. And while visuals are hardly the main reason I see a movie, they are important and with something as stylish as The Crow - whether comic book or film - the way it looks is important.

I do wish they had stuck with the iconic look of Eric from the comic. They're close, but not quite there. That shock-white face is necessary.

Although that does bring me to the second thing I kinda liked. I know this is a downside for a lot of people, but I like that they're mixing up the plot a bit. Why? Well, I have a pretty faithful original comic adaptation (barring some name swaps and fleshed-out subplots) already. The original Crow movie did a really good job of getting it all exactly copied. I know they extended the ending and whatnot, but it was mostly faithful and worked perfectly. Why try to replicate it? I do like that they're maybe going to do a bit of a remix.

However, that brings me to my biggest dislike in the trailer, which might be an ill omen of bad things to come... Eric and Shelley as prisoners in a prison yard suggests that they will be ex-cons together. That backstory isn't just an unnecessary change it is - at least as far as I can tell - a wretched-bad one. Eric's soul is tortured enough to return partially - in my opinion - because of the senseless brutality by evil against innocence. Eric and Shelley were just two people in love. They have this act of horrific violence perpetrated against them. Eric returns with the eponymous bird seeking vengeance and justice. Now, okay, there's a big difference between an ex-con going straight and an unrepentant gangster. Or it's possible that, in the larger context of the full movie, Eric and Shelley were just framed or something. But as it appears, the movie has changed the backstory for the worse in such a way that it doesn't fit the story and themes of the original.

Which, in conclusion, basically suggests that any excitement or interest generated by their willingness to mix it up is burned away into ash. If they don't understand the story, the changes will be random, and probably make the story worse.

I'll end on a positive note: Bill Skarsgard is a great actor and a great choice for Eric. The casting seems pretty solid here, so that might be cool.

I don't know if I'll wind up seeing the film or not. But while I was cautiously optimistic before watching the trailer, after watching it I've just got concerns and trepidation.

Couldn't make it through the trailer, I love the original too much. The couple Eric and Shelley no longer look like goth alternative types. They just look kind of normal. The surreal cinematography is all gone and it looks like a normal film/world. His make up looks more like a clown.

The music sucks.

But is it Woke? I can tolerate awful music, bad plot, ugly characters, fake fights, lame CGI, but NOT Wokeness!

I wonder if they hiphopped it up because a black woman was in it. No long hair either like in the comics. Sometimes you just can't beat the original. If you take out the whole Crow premise this movie does look to stand on its own like a clone of John Wick but with infinite health. Still, this movie is watchable from the looks of it.