The core story of this movie is really good, but like the other sequels, it revels in extreme sexuality and gore, neither of which were in the original.Eric Mabius ("Resident Evil", TV's "Ugly Betty") stars as Alex Corvis, convicted for the brutal murder of his girlfriend Lauren Randall (Jodi-Lyn O'Keefe). Framed for the crime, and without any evidence to support his innocence, Alex is executed on the night of his 21st birthday. Hours later, he is revived by a hypnotic crow, and given the power of invincibility. Breaking into the police evidence room, Alex finds a list of witnesses from his trial. The first, Tommy Leonard, tells Alex the cops on that list blackmailed him.Soon, Lauren's sister Erin (Kirsten Dunst) runs into Alex while visiting Lauren's grave, but he disappears. Later, he visits her home with evidence incriminating her father (William Atherton). Faced with the truth, she agrees to help him, but is soon kidnapped by the corrupt police chief (Fred Ward). Killing all the officers in a quest to find Lauren's real murderer, Alex is fooled into thinking his mission's finished. Now mortal, he finds out the captain ordered Lauren's death, but is stabbed repeatedly while confronting him. Dying again, Eric is brought to the captain's lair, but has his powers restored by the crow for a final showdown. Back at the prison's execution chamber, Alex and Erin watch as the captain is electrocuted. Finally free, Alex vanishes for good, and Erin visits his grave sometime later.My main reasons for rating the film so low are due to explicit sexuality and gore. Several people are repeatedly stabbed, one man has a name carved into his head, and another's arm is cut off. Extended walks through a strip club show topless dancers and fully nude porn workers. The language is about on par with the rest of the series, and definitely fits the R rating.

The Crow: Salvation (2000) * (out of 4)The third film in the series succeeds at becoming not only worse than the second but also the first to go straight to DVD. This time out Alex Corvis (Eric Mabius) is put to death for killing his girlfriend, a crime he didn't commit. Soon after the electricity, the crow brings him back to life to seek out those who really did the crime. THE CROW: SALVATION is a pretty awful movie from start to finish but thankfully there are a few moments that get so campy that you can't help but laugh and this is what keeps the thing from becoming a total bomb. The majority of the problems can be blamed on an awful screenplay and some really bad performances. The screenplay offers up some of the worst dialogue that you're ever going to hear and this is where a great many laughs come from. Just check out the first scene where the revived Alex meets his girlfriend's sister (Kirsten Dunst) and just listen to their conversation. The dialogue is so bad at times one really wonders if it wasn't meant as some homage to Edward D. Wood, Jr.. The performances are another really bad thing with Mabius coming off incredibly awful with his line delivery and the entire way he acts the part. I'm not sure if he was trying to copy Brandon Lee from the first film but he fails miserably and I'd say that the lack of energy or excitement just brought the film down even more. At this point in her career Dunst wasn't the greatest actress in the world and I think this is the worst I've seen her. She appears to be bored out of her mind and constantly wondering to herself what she's doing in this picture. At least Fred Ward adds some nice touches as the crooked Captain. THE CROW: SALVATION is a very poor film that's clearly just attaching itself to a popular original movie in hopes of milking out some cash.

I watched this before the original The Crow. In fact, I'm not sure I realized that this was part of a series, much less the third part. Now, having watched the original(I have not seen the second movie), comparisons are unavoidable, and they are, I'm afraid, entirely and mercilessly unfavorable. This "gets" rather little from the first at all, and even less of it gets done right. There are attempts for the tone, but in spite of introducing new perverted enemies for the undead bird to seek out and combat, it just doesn't have the impact of the first. The language and nudity is present, but that's hardly what made the first excellent. The style... I don't know, it tries. More often than not, the film comes off as silly(unintentionally, I'd wager). The plot could have been better, and it seems like there was at least one point where they go for demystifying some of the supernatural elements(fantasy is by no means a genre I venture into often, much less enjoy, but in the original, it definitely worked). The powers may have also been altered. The pacing is reasonable, I guess. The acting is usually unimpressive, except for perhaps moments by the two leads. The music isn't bad, mostly rock, and dark in mood, fitting. I wouldn't exactly put up much of a fight if someone tried to sell me the soundtrack. The action has some to offer, as well(if it gets terribly overblown and overdone at parts, in its attempts to outdo the first film), though I can't claim that it'll stay in your memory for long(and, come on, if we're going to watch a young man fight, are we going to choose Eric Mabius over Brandon Lee any day of the week, on a dare, to win a bet *and/or* any other reason? I refer you to Will Smith's oft-used catch-phrase of many of his movies for an answer(hint: it's the one where he uses a word that refers to downstairs, and no, I'm not talking about a basement). The effects are good. The movie is shot and edited fine, if there aren't really any ground-breaking moments. A lot of this seems almost remade from the first, just lacking what made that film great. Gone is the poetic justice. Images, events and the basic *structure* of the film are recycled from the first, almost to the point where you start to wonder if these film-makers actually had or even thought they had *anything* to actually contribute to the franchise, or if they just saw a cash cow, grabbed a teet each and squeezed, as hard as they could. Actual fans of The Crow should steer clear of this. If all you want is a revenge flick, and you either don't mind or prefer them with some touch of fantasy and/or the supernatural, knock yourself out. I recommend this to those who find themselves in the latter group(I've got no problem with people in said group... I just want to make it clear who are likely to enjoy the film). 5/10

After murder his girlfriend(Jody Lynn O'Keefe), a young named Alex Corvis(Eric Mabius) is condemned electric chair. The execution is watched by her father(William Atherton) and her sister(Kirsten Dunst). But he returns to life and rises from death in order to seek vengeance on those who murdered his fiancée and wrongly framed him like killer and battling nasties hoodlums and corrupts policemen from inner city.As always, one time resurrected is guided by a spectral crow. Alex with tragic melancholy pulls off bloody revenge,one by one, killing violently enemies.This is a dark , rainy, colorful film with mostly scenes developing into the night. The movie packs loads of violence, grisly killing, blood and gore. Based on the black and white comic strip by James O'Barr. Spectacular production design with strong style and creepy sepia-toned by magnificent cinematography in charge of Carolyne Chen though quite gloomy. Eerie music score by Marco Beltrani, adding heavy rock soundtrack. The motion picture is professionally directed by Bharat Nalluri, usual television movies director(Tsunami). The original movie ¨The Crow¨(1994,Alex Proyas) with Brandon Lee(died accidentally shortly before was complete) is much better, but this one is better than ¨The Crow 2: City of Angels¨(1996,Tim Pope)with Vincent Perez ,and followed by TV series with Mark Dacascos; and recently, in production, a new sequel by Rod Zombie.