The Crow: Wicked Prayer

I started out watching this movie with an open mind, keeping it that way until it was all over. But what I found was; a large piece of junk... Badly acted, badly filmed, badly directed and very badly written!

I love the first movie, but I have not yet seen the second two... But this one was one of the worst movies I have ever seen, alongside city of fear, that is.

It was SO bad, I can't even try to explain it, but I just want to warn you all, it's BAD! (Not Micheal Jackson bad... Just plain old bad) Edward, David, Tara, Danny and Dennis all reach a new low in this movie.. And under no circumstance would Edward Furlong ever make a good crow... What on earth were they thinking here? And what was Dennis Hopper doing in this one? He tried to sound like a pimp, but ended up sounding worse than Chinese-water-torture... (Probably not his fault though... I think I blame the writers) Also; David, Danny, Edward and Tara have all appeared in good movies before, proving their ability to act... It's just this movie that drags their names trough the dirt... Making Edward a dirty s*** after this one and Pet Cemetary2...

I give this movie a 2... since I'm in a good mood...

Greetings I'm afraid Crow fans are going to be in for a disappointment. 'Wicked Prayer', it starts out quite strong but rapidly loses steam. David Boreanaz, who should be well known by now at the very least for excellent villains, is not given much room here. I don't think it was his fault; what he could do, he did do but the role just didn't have much.

The plot is lacking seriously, the mythology is entirely corrupted (The Crows power does NOT come from love thank you very much), and the fight scenes, aside from the initial murder, are pathetic.

Which is a shame really because there was a half hearted effort to make the four bad guys, Famine, Pestilence, War and Death more than just another series of bad guys like T-Bird's gang, and Curve's boys or those cops in the underrated third movie. They were, from time to time unnerved by the violence, but this plot thread was crushed by how easily and half-heartedly they were lured back to evil deeds.

The biggest disappointment was their ends; perhaps it was budget constraints but there was near zero visceral satisfaction. I'm bloodthirsty, sue me.

Also a lot of the drama, what little of it was built up, was totally savaged by Danny Tregjo's native American 'Crow Dance'. Tregjo makes one of the bad-assest Mexican bag-guys/evil doers/violence loving vigilantes on screen today. He can even pull off a good priest and a so-so mourning father. What he cannot do, tattoo laden pectoral muscles flopping around like half empty water balloons, is a American Indian ceremonial dance. Not, at least, without my jaw hitting the floor before I follow after holding my ribs in a fit of hysterics.

I was incredibly sceptical of Eddie Furlong in the title role but heard good things from the crew on the film and, having seen him in the irony mask, felt my concern ebb. Truth be told he did have a few good moments but his pain was never convincing, not for one. single. second. Acting enraged, pained, tormented is a key part of the Crow's character and he just did not have it. He can't even compare to Vincent Perez's little tantrum in front of Spider Monkey. Don't even try to contrast Furlong with Mabius' first humorous curiosity, then growing rage, or God Forbid, Brandon Lee's near perfect representation of pain.

My biggest beef? The lighting. The entire movie was well lit. No darkness, no shadows. Everyone meandered about either in full time sun, or well lit night scenes. And that was a physical representation of this entire film: It wasn't dark enough.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer, easily the weakest of the four. While I hate to admit it I think this franchise has gone as far as it can.

I remain, as always, Mad-Hamlet

Wicked Prayer is a departure from the previous films in that it takes place in an entirely different, unique setting. The third sequel is set in the American Southwest, and the director has created a film with a style more in line with spaghetti westerns than with the other Crow films. This immediately starts the film out on the wrong foot. The concept of a makeup-wearing avenger can be silly if it isn't treated with respect and verisimilitude, and that is a big reason why The Crow: Wicked Prayer falls flat on its face. From the very beginning of the film, when the villains are introduced with jokey subtitles featuring their nicknames and main attributes, Wicked Prayer is just too tongue-in-cheek to be compelling in any way. David Boreanaz's over-the-top, Nicholson-esquire performance doesn't help matters, and Edward Furlong simply doesn't have the acting chops or the charisma to make up for the film's numerous flaws. In the end, he turns out looking more like a mid-90's Smashing Pumpkins fan than a fearsome spirit of vengeance. Add in some embarrassingly bad wire work in the fight scenes and you have one big, bad, direct-to-video disaster. It's not even worth a rental.

By no means a perfect film although by far the most amazing in the series bar the first. There is something about Wicked Prayer that is so cool, an i think id have to say it is Edward Furlong. This guy really does make a good crow. Maybe because unlike the other previous Crows, he doesn't pretend or act like Brandon Lee, instead we have a much angst an angry Crow, who doesn't go out of his way to b nice to someone that isn't guilty. It makes for a difference in plot and story. Okay Boreanaz was alright up to a point, then just started to act a bit too Angelous(don't get me wrong i love Angel, an think Boreanaz is great in his series, its just that he overacts in this as Angelous). Dennis Hopper was awful, over-acting every word and statement he had to make. Sure it didn't help him that his dialogue was fairly crap and to a certain extent pointless and Tara Reid just can't act. The story its self is rather entertaining and adds originality to the crow story instead of it just being the usual re-telling of the 1st, like city of angels. I would just love it tho if the love theme from the awful third film made it into this, then at least you wouldn't have such an amazing theme linked to an awe-full film. Oh well, the music wasn't that bad, tho nor was it good. Anyway, moan the furlong, this film has certainly made me a fan of his. He was amazing, in a hugely under-rated film. I'd advise any one to watch this cause it was actually a great film.

Back in the day Alex Proyas brought us the relatively low budget actioner The crow, after that a sequel that wasn't too bad followed, after that yet another not great but not too terrible sequel came...and now this.

What on earth went wrong, and why was this movie ever made? It is one thing making a bad movie that had the potential of being a good movie, but this movie never had potential whatsoever.

It was awful to watch, the script were terrible and it was almost as if the director wasn't quite sure what he wanned the movie to look like, he tried to give it a 2000's MTV hip-hop feel in the beginning and then tried to do something quite different and then everything went to hell and everything got so cheesy that I only needed a patty and a bun and I would have had a cheeseburger, it actually bordered on slapstick comedy.

Yes this film should not be watched and its lightyears away from the classic helmed by Alex Proyas.