Crow 2: City of Angels is directed by Tim Pope, pretty unknown name for me. The film is not a sequel as it has totally new story and characters, and only similarity to Alex Proyas' original seems to be the revenging dead guided by a crow. This time Ashe (Vincent Perez) and his son are killed by some hooligans and their sick leader and soon Ashe comes back to life with a crow guiding him. He meets a beautiful girl Sarah (Mia Kirshner) and most likely falls in love with her. He starts to kill the guys who killed him and his son, and he does it with skill, as always. The film is set in some hellish netherworld where evil is everywhere, and also the criminals who killed our hero are very bad and evil, if not too believable all the time.
The atmosphere of the film is occasionally pretty impressing and the presence of evil and feeling of depravity is powerful. Mia Kirshner's character brings some positivism to the story and she is among the few positive characters in this film. There are couple of great visuals and styles like fast editing and impressive cinematography techniques, and there is also dust and colorful smoke everywhere. These create great atmosphere for the film, and that's almost all this film managed to give me.
The bad guys are bad and one is played by Iggy Pop. They should have been little more believable as now they become little irritating and stupid, as usually in these movies. Also, it would've been nice, if the film had had some spirit and message under its surface; now it's just empty revenge story without any point.
The film is also often little slow moving and even boring. In fact, I felt myself almost uncomfortable during the last scene at the street when nothing seemed to happen or happen logically or satisfyingly. The film has too many easy conclusions and that makes the demanding viewer feel stupid and willing to stop the viewing. It is great that there are still those visual elements and angel like Mia that keep the film together and made it possible to watch without falling asleep.
The tone of the film is pretty depressing as this tries to be as rough and violent as possible, but still I think the first film is far more impressive. Crow 2 is also dark, dirty and gritty but not as rough experience as all the adverts said on the DVD cover (not that I believed them, but still). However, I found these mentioned merits from this film and so give this 4/10 and recommend mostly for fans of exploitation/trash/horror cinema; in other words for those who have used to seeing not so great movies and movies that most people cannot even sit through. There are also many great bands in the soundtrack of the film.
The atmosphere of the film is occasionally pretty impressing and the presence of evil and feeling of depravity is powerful. Mia Kirshner's character brings some positivism to the story and she is among the few positive characters in this film. There are couple of great visuals and styles like fast editing and impressive cinematography techniques, and there is also dust and colorful smoke everywhere. These create great atmosphere for the film, and that's almost all this film managed to give me.
The bad guys are bad and one is played by Iggy Pop. They should have been little more believable as now they become little irritating and stupid, as usually in these movies. Also, it would've been nice, if the film had had some spirit and message under its surface; now it's just empty revenge story without any point.
The film is also often little slow moving and even boring. In fact, I felt myself almost uncomfortable during the last scene at the street when nothing seemed to happen or happen logically or satisfyingly. The film has too many easy conclusions and that makes the demanding viewer feel stupid and willing to stop the viewing. It is great that there are still those visual elements and angel like Mia that keep the film together and made it possible to watch without falling asleep.
The tone of the film is pretty depressing as this tries to be as rough and violent as possible, but still I think the first film is far more impressive. Crow 2 is also dark, dirty and gritty but not as rough experience as all the adverts said on the DVD cover (not that I believed them, but still). However, I found these mentioned merits from this film and so give this 4/10 and recommend mostly for fans of exploitation/trash/horror cinema; in other words for those who have used to seeing not so great movies and movies that most people cannot even sit through. There are also many great bands in the soundtrack of the film.