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The Crow: Collector's Edition (DVD)
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Brian "Fire It Up" Pritchard (Columnist)
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"Victims... Aren't we all?"
Brandon Lee, 1965 - 1993 |
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In 1998, the first edition of The Crow DVD suffered not only from a bad transfer, but a phenomenal lack of extras (unless you consider "French language track" and "Chapter Selections" tasty extras - I don't). So needless to say, fans of the first in what became a lackluster franchise were eagerly awaiting a special edition. And while they may not be getting all they hoped for, it certainly is a step up.
Almost everything has been improved upon, but given the quality of the first disc, that wasn't a real challenge. The most minimal of changes is in the packaging. The case appears almost identical to the first edition, with the major difference being that this is a 2-disc set. (The lack of creativity in designing new cover art for this edition becomes even more questionable once you find all the rejected art for the original ad campaign on the second disc.) Beyond that, the first disc is very nice. The animated menus are handled nicely, and navigate quite well. The transfer is impressive, especially in comparison to the original. Presentation here is even more outstanding than it was in the theaters, where the film had a washed-out look. Given how dark and nearly colorless the film is, the black levels (the hardest thing to digitally compress) on this disc are astounding. The picture would be complimented by the sound, but I hate to promise what cannot necessarily be given. This disc contains two different English soundtracks (as well as the triumphant return of the French language track!). One is in DTS 5.1, and the other is in Dolby 2-channel Surround (a basic "left-right-center" surround format discarded in the mid-90's). The odd thing here is that on the first disc, a 5.1 Dolby Digital track was included. Here, you must have a DTS decoder to hear the film in all it's 5.1 glory. Otherwise you are stuck with the so-so 2-channel transfer. To its credit, the DTS sounds great, and it compliments the picture quite nicely - but if you are stuck with the Dolby Surround, you're getting screwed.
Now, the entire purpose of releasing a "special edition" DVD is to add materials that were not included on the first issue DVD. Generally, this occurs because back when DVDs were still very young, studios released their popular VHS titles as a test to see if the new digital format would fly. (I personally think that they do it just to drive collectors like myself absolutely insane - but the former is still a reasonable theory. And by the way, if you are curious to find out if that DVD you've been looking at is going to have a new version released right after you buy it, ask me - I can probably help.) Now that DVD has more than proven itself, most discs are coming jam-packed with fancy extras. And it is in this respect that The Crow: Collector's Series falls just short of the mark.
For starters, no theatrical trailer - sheer laziness. Secondly, for a 2-disc set designed to "take you inside the movie", this disc doesn't show anything quite that enlightening. A behind-the-scenes featurette is 16 minutes of filler. The profile of "Crow" creator James O'Barr - an interview of sorts conducted in the basement of O'Barr's home - is the most uncomfortable 30 minutes ever committed to disc. And the feature commentary by producer Jeff Most and screenwriter John Shirley is a real bore (director Alex Proyas' presence or input on this disc is non-existent). The most interesting items offered here are the artistic aspects such as storyboards and poster concepts. The extended scenes offer little insight into any expanded plot, and the deleted scenes "montage", while done very nicely, is still a big tease. Where's the low-down on how they pushed on in spite the death of star Brandon Lee? Where is the footage involving the Skull Cowboy (a character cut from the film after Lee's demise left the scenes unfinished)? I know it can be argued that the filmmakers wanted to have respect for Lee by not exploiting his death, but they achieved that point when the film was released. It has almost been 10 years now. Respectfully covering what the cast and crew had to go through in order for the show to go on would have been fascinating.
Still, while there are definite missed opportunities here, the overall disc both improves on its predecessor and serves as a nice, if incomplete, archive of a terrific film. You won't see another edition anytime soon (if ever), and this would be a worthy edition to anyone's collection. Buy it for the film, just don't expect a whole lot more.
7/10
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The Crow
Starring:
Brandon Lee
Ernie Hudson
Michael Wincott
David Patrick Kelly
Directed by:
Alex Proyas
Rated:
Not Rated
Briefly, how we rate the movies we see...
| 10 |
_Perfect
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| 9 |
_Excellent
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| 8 |
_Great
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| 7 |
_Very Good
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| 6 |
_Good
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| 5 |
_Not Bad
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| 4 |
_Not Good
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| 3 |
_Pretty Bad
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| 2 |
_Really Bad
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| 1 |
_Suck Ass
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| 0 |
_Feces on Film
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