To say 2024 has been a big year for expensive movie swing and soul-crushing box office bombs would be a bit of an understatement. Although the live-action Borderlands film currently remains the record-holder for the biggest box office bomb of the year, the equally panned fresh adaptation of The Crow—starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs—has the distinction of being roasted by the original film’s director.
According to Variety, The Crow raked in $4.6 million at the box office on its opening weekend, making it a certified bomb considering its $50 million production budget. While this cinematic shortcoming is detrimental for all parties involved, Alex Proyas, the director of the 1994 Crow adaptation, has been posting like a madman on his official Facebook page, slating the new film as a prophetic box office bomb.
“I thought the remake was a cynical cash-grab,” Proyas said in one post. “Not much cash to grab it seems.”
If Proyas’ scathing review wasn’t enough, the rest of his Facebook page is awash with links to negative reviews of the film that, as Proyas puts it, “is a bit like flogging a dead horse.” While each post ranges in the oof factor of its harshest reviews, the heart of each critique touches on Proyas’ long-held conviction that any attempt to re-adapt would ostensibly tarnish the legacy actor Brandon Lee, who died in a tragic accident on set.
“I really don’t get any joy from seeing negativity about any fellow filmmakers work,” Proyas in a March Facebook post regarding the reboot’s negative like-to-dislike ratio on YouTube. “And I’m certain the cast and crew really had all good intentions, as we all do on any film. So it pains me to say any more on this topic, but I think the fan’s response speaks volumes. The Crow is not just a movie. Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.”
To the new film’s credit, co-screenwriter William Schneider justified the film’s existence in an August interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying they purposefully didn’t go the same route Proyas did with his 1994 adaptation out of respect for the original movie.
“Instead, we wanted to chart our own course almost as a way to sort of celebrate it and say, ‘Hey, we found a new way into the story, and we want them both to exist with their own voices, with their own set of fans,’” Schneider told THR. “I hope everyone walks away from this film just reinvested in the people they love and care about. Because yes, it’s about grief, it’s about loss, but it’s also about sacrifice and what you’re willing to do for the person you love.”
Unfortunately, moviegoers weren’t really feeling The Crow reboot, which is currently sitting at a 20% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps, with enough time and retrospection, The Crow reboot will garner cult classic status like its predecessor.
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