The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005) Reviews

• Easily the Weakest of the Four

  Mad-Hamlet2005-09-05

  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

  More

• Quoth the raven..."Please, no more!"

  BHorrorWriter2005-07-30

  In the year 1993, Brandon Lee created a very memorable, dark & beautiful character: The Crow. The movie, with an exceptional script, smart direction, excellent photography and a brilliant cast, it truly one of my all time favorites. Everything from the look of the film, the characters (especially Lee as the Crow), the phenomenal soundtrack and the overall story of love being stronger than death - I was hooked! I love that film! I saw it in theaters no less than 8 times. CITY OF ANGELS was a shallow, bastardized attempt to cash in on the success of the first film. In some ways, ANGELS almost ripped-off the original, but in a way that makes me loathe the film. Very disappointing! SALVATION, the third in the series was...I can't even remember. I saw it once, and do not remember being overwhelmed by it or feeling anything for it. And now, 2005 brings back the return of The Crow with WICKED PRAYER. Unlike the first three films, this one takes place in the desert, near an Indian reservation. I must admit, I was impressed with the cinematography on this film. The desert scenes, the flashback scenes, all were well done and looked great. So...what do I think of the film? The direction? The acting? For starters the direction of this film was all too often sloppy. It appeared, more times than not, the film was confused with where it wanted to go. The characters seemed stuck into scenes, with little to no direction, and carried scenes with no skill. Each set up seemed and felt under-rehearsed and underdeveloped. Edward Furlong is by NO stretch of my imagination an acceptable Crow! Looking too much like a gay goth groupie, instead of a vengeful angel set to make the wrong things right. His costume appeared to steal too much from the original. I felt his performance was bland and tasteless. There was no emotion displayed by his character. I did not feel pity or sorry for him, or what happens to him. I was no convinced that his love was so undying that he could be brought back from the dead. He is no Brandon Lee! I mean, come on: "Quoth the Raven, Nevermore. Motherf**ker!" What kind of crap writing is that? Boreanez is wasted in this film. Though, he has not impressed me much with previous roles such as Adam Carr in VALENTINE, I still feel he is a solid actor and really can pull off the bad guy look. However, in WICKED PRAYER, it never feels like we are 100% sure of what he is doing or why. OK, I get that he is performing a ritual to become a demon or devil, but where did this come from? What is in motivation? World domination? I don't think we will ever know. Tara Reid....Ugh! And Macy Gray?!?!? And what was up with Dennis Hopper, in what could only be his worst performance. None of the cast is able to save this mess! Very upsetting to see the series continue to be treated this way. What started out 12 years ago with such an inspiring beginning, is continuing to fall further down the spiral of sequel Hell!

  More

• Yes, This might be one of the worst movies in history!

  Dracin2007-01-22

  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...

  More

• Somebody forgot the script...

  Lanraso2006-09-06

  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.

  More

• This movie hasn't got a prayer.

  arcwulf2005-09-30

  It is amazing how "The Crow" franchise manages to slide in quality from one film to the next. The first one was really good, the second was so-so, the third was terrible, and this one... this one... The movie starts out with promise. Four criminals who have named themselves after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are seeking to revenge themselves on a small mining town for past injustices. They vent some of their rage on a former associate and his soon-to-be fiancé. This interesting plot device works for the first five minutes of the film. Then the "acting" begins. I have nothing against Edward Furlong, really. And to be fair he does a pretty good job for someone who has no business playing an action hero. The other actors leave a lot to be desired. It becomes painfully obvious as the film progresses that the production crew only hired David Boreanaz and Tara Reid because they were the biggest names their shoestring budget could afford, in an attempt to lend credence to a VERY substandard production (I don't care what their excuses are, if Robert Rodriguez could film "El Mariachi" for under $10,000 there's no reason this film couldn't have been better). There is NO chemistry between Boreanaz and Reid at all. None. Zip. Nada. It is sickening to watch them interact. Reid's character is to this film what a rose stem would to one if it were lodged in one's favorite pair of walking shoes - pretty and irritating to the point of being painful. Throughout this entire film one keeps expecting her character to develop, but is instead treated to whiny and forced compassion for her boyfriend's victims one minute, unnecessary stabbings and eye-gouging the next. Things I learned from watching "The Crow: Wicked Prayer": 1.) Satan speaks in "Hipster" 2.) Native Americans can be readily replaced by Latino actors. 3.) Southwestern Native American traditions include totem poles for some reason. 4.) Native American dance includes jumping up and down and mumbling. 5.) A movie doesn't have to have a cohesive plot, interesting characters, story development, a research team, or anyone that knows anything about anything so long as it has a budget to attach some sort of star power to it. If this had been filmed by college students for one semester of course credit using fresh-faced actors, it would be somewhat enjoyable. Alas, it was not.

  More