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The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)

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139 comments in total

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48 out of 69 people found the following comment useful :-
Quoth the raven..."Please, no more!", 30 luglio 2005

Author: BHorrorWriter da Ohio, USA

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!

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24 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Easily the Weakest of the Four, 5 settembre 2005

Author: Mad-Hamlet da Hungary

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

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17 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Oh my God! Please..., 22 gennaio 2007

Author: pete da Hungary

My almost top ten favorite movie is since I'm 14 "The Crow" with B.Lee. I love it too much, to say there is a good sequel from it. No. There isn't. The second part was OK, the third terrible and this... i don't know what to say about. It's a big hole with full of sh*t... I hope lot of people around the world understand with me, because the original movie was one of the biggest thing in my life. I'm very sad, because there are a lot of emotions in the story and I can't understand how the sequels are so stupid and cheap, full with action(worse action)against feelings and love... I hope there will be no more movies with this title, because Brandon will really come back to make the wrong things right!

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22 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
Awful.......just, awful., 26 settembre 2005

Author: eharrold63 da Illinois, USA

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.

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14 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Yes, This might be one of the worst movies in history!, 22 gennaio 2007

Author: Dracin da Norway

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...

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13 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
This movie hasn't got a prayer., 30 settembre 2005

Author: arcwulf da United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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13 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
What possessed him?!, 17 ottobre 2005

Author: WitchcraftCrazy da United Kingdom

I adore the Crow franchise... I love all the movies and even the T.V show on occasion.

But lets face it, Wicked Prayer was the worst movie to date. The original was fantastic, as they always are, the second (City of Angels) was passable, but Vincent Perez was great as the Crow. Salvation, my second favourite, made use of some amazing young talent... But Wicked Prayer?! No. David Boreanez is a great actor, I think he did an amazing job as Angel in Buffy and Angel, Tara Reid is great in all her other movies... But so miscast in this it's untrue... The new crow, not too bad, but far too underplayed! Where's the angst? The special effects were lousy to say the least and it seemed the director was too interested I'm piling up the body count than making a genuine love/revenge story that the entire crow fiction centres upon.

I honestly have to steer people away, as only the true die-hard fans would want to see it, for the sake of saying they have seen it. Every one else would be put off the movies for good!

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30 out of 55 people found the following comment useful :-
The Crow: Wicked Prayer delivers, 5 giugno 2005

Author: abahb1

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER marks a return to a stylized form of film making. Each scene, especially early on, is like a framed poetic piece of art work. That word "poetic" was used by quite a few folks when describing various scenes. The film/story is set in the desert Southwest. Everything has dust/sand on it. There is a natural haze that seemingly lifts once night fall comes. Gone is the urban decay of previous stories. This dusty/dirty atmosphere helps to establish the film as a modern western tale.

The local community is odds over the mine in their town being closed to allow for a casino to be built. This conflict pits the Native American community against the rest of the community. This conflict, in part, lends to some of the reasons why the Four Horseman gang featured in the film are seeking revenge. The gang believes THEY are righting wrongs. The one thing that the town can agree on is nobody likes Jimmy Cuervo (Eddie Furlong).

The gang is not entirely evil, which is evidenced through some very well done moments in the story where the gang isn't so sure of themselves. This humanizes these characters that have in previous Crow films been nothing more than cartoon characters lined up for the slaughter. Jimmy could easily have fallen into this gang. Were it not for the love of Lily, he may well have. It is this tip toeing of the line between who is good and evil that makes the story fascinating.

Action is straight on, not a lot of martial arts. Wires are used from time to time, but other than that, the action is raw and emotional. There are no car chases, no exaggerated fighting styles. This is bare knuckle action and it fits the setting and story perfectly. I really liked that the action was not over the top.

The opening sequence, with its tip of the 10 gallon hat to THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY intro of the gang is great and sets the tone perfectly. Jimmy and Lily's intros are great. It was a nice to actually see both lovers alive at the beginning, where we can see them relate to each other rather than relying on flashbacks to establish their relationship. This adds strength to our empathy/sympathy for Jimmy later on. Jimmy's resurrection is done perfectly, a lot of emotion.

The music is absolutely fantastic. Jamie Christopherson's score is THE best, in my opinion, to date. It uses guitars, harmonicas, brass, all the elements that you would expect from a western setting.This is the first Crow film without the benefit of a rock soundtrack. In my opinion having a score-only soundtrack works perfectly given the desert setting.

Eddie Furlong's performance is spot on. He has the crux of responsibility in this film and he handles it beautifully. His character is very different from previous Crow films. He is torn when he comes back. He doesn't want to be there, he wants to be with Lily. Eddie does a great job conveying this pain. Eventually he accepts that this is the only way to be with Lily again. Emmanuelle is a dream, you can feel her love for Jimmy and the strength she has.

The villains overall are a much improved element over previous sequels. The beauty of this film is for the first time, we see the villains as humans. They have back stories that we are given glimpses into through their introductions and flashback sequences.

The director, Lance Mungia, has a great style to watch. The camera angles and shots are beautiful. The editing is near flawless with some very nice transition scenes that go from real-time to flashback back to real-time with beautiful results. I would have to say that for the first time in the sequels, we have a very technically sound film here. There was great care and work put into this film during post-production and it shows.

The ending is one of the best since the first film from an emotional level. It is beautifully shot and executed; you will be moved by it. Again, the word "poetic" comes up time and again when I look for a way to describe the look and feel of this film.

My only complaint with the film is the first half of the 3rd act. This is when Luc has channeled Satan and he and Lola are married to further consummate the union. David Boreanaz, in my opinion, is too far over the top. The dialogue David has during this part of the film is sprinkled with a tongue-n-cheek tone, but his delivery works against the intent, in my opinion. He obviously tries to take a page from Jack Nicholson's slant on the Joker from the first BATMAN film, but goes two pages instead.

Hopper's dialogue is cringe worthy in the 3rd act. I had hoped perhaps the delivery of the lines would improve them from the last script I had read. But as feared, the gangsta' lingo sounds out of place and I wish it would have been changed. Thankfully the second half of the 3rd act gets things back on the right track and gives us a very satisfying and emotional ending.

Overall, loved the film and can't wait for the DVD.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Sadly, a great concept for a Crow film is pushed in the wrong direction at the beginning and never is able to get back., 18 giugno 2006

Author: tonymurphylee da USA

*1/2 out of ****

well, for the good things, the look of the film is nice and red. From previous entries the series has mostly used dark colors for the backdrop of the films. Edward Furlong does a surprisingly good job here and David Borneos does good too. The music sounds appropriate for the theme of the film and the storyline involving the main character is a neat concept.

The storyline is as follows, Jimmy Cuervo is murdered alongside his girlfriend as part of a strange satanic ritual. Jimmy rises from the dead to avenge the death of him and his girlfriend. The film takes place in Mexico and the two lovers weren't meant to be as the girlfriend's father doesn't want her to hang out with a murderer. This is the first time the murder victim isn't innocent as he is a convicted killer. This concept can work great.

In a perfect world it can work great, but the film doesn't work. Instead of focusing on the protagonist, the viewers experience with the film is constrained to the villains. The film focuses on the demon worshipers and the rituals and almost never focuses on Jimmy Cuervo.

It's disappointing because the demon worship plot line isn't interesting. it s made even worse by the fact that the audience is supposed to get to know the bad guys more than the hero. This doesn't work either because the bad guys are not interesting or evil enough to really spend time focusing on.

The other crow films featured outstanding villains and more of a sense of reason for killing them. We can't just get to know bad guys knowing that they will be killed. The film should have been more about the hero and his struggles.

To be fair, the head villain is suitably idiotic enough for comic relief. Tara Reid plays his sidekick, but she doesn't have much to do here except to change her mind on the killings. The other villains have back-stories, sure, but they don't have any spirit in their parts.

Speaking of which, the normally good Dennis Hopper is terrible in this film as an annoying Ebonics worshiping boss man. His lines aren't funny, his character is weird, and his reason for being in the film adds nothing. Macy Grey plays a brief but cute role. The murder scenes have no context or a sense of meaning or surprise. They range from a baseball bat to the head, to a heart ripping, to an actual suicide!!! What the hell?! This film was all the more disappointing due to the director Lance Mungia directed one of my favorite films(SIX STRING SAMURAI) and to know that he has talent makes the film seem all the more better, yet worse. Because of this fact, I cannot hate this film. Its not the worst film in the world, and i could watch it again without hesitation. But this film is disappointing for a fan of the crow films.

Rated R for violence and language throughout, some sexual and drug content.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Sentimental favorite, 30 maggio 2006
Author: llcruize da U.S.

This film, more so than any of the other Crow films, was relate-able for me. The anger within Jimmy and how it brings about his fall and rise are things that personally I can identify with.

I absolutely loved the themes present this time around. Unlike the previous installment, an attempt was made to give the villains something more than just greed to fuel their actions. We have a gray line here, something that I think many couldn't grasp that have been very negative about this film.

Performances by the leads are top notch. I did have a hard time staying with Boreanaz's choice of characterization when he channels the devil, but with further viewings, his attempt is better understood. I only wish that the awful dialog of El Nino could have been changed prior to the film being made. I was able to read early script drafts and his dialog was always a concern of mine and it came off as bad as I thought it would.

The music is fantastic, one of the best scores of the franchise. It is a crime the music was not released on CD. The music can be found at Jamie Christopherson's site however and I highly recommend you check it out.

As I said in the beginning, the element that drew me in the most with this film was Jimmy's imperfection. The first two films of the franchise gave us men who were for the most part heroes. The third film tired to go a little further, but this film gives us a true anti-hero that O'Barr, the comic creator, invisioned for the lead character in these tales. Jimmy's only one redeeming value is the love he shares with Lily. I thought this gave him much more depth than the previous characters and Furlong brought to life this character wonderfully.

Probably one of the most misunderstood and under-appreciated entries in the franchise, Wicked Prayer stands today as a sentimental favorite of mine for the chance Lance Mungia took to do something different with the franchise as well as for the themes presented.

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