The nineties. Not the best decade for comic book adaptations. Richard Donners Superman did well in the seventies and Tim Burtons Batman got the tone for the Dark Knight right near the end of the eighties. This could have been what made the studios see the potential for big bucks in turning stories of the sequential art into something a little bit more cinematic back then. Not many comic book movies made this era turned out well though. This movie however was an exception. While many other movies made this era only (or mostly) survived by being so bad that they were good, this one respected the story and tone of the work it was based on and met success. Though possibly not only for its quality, something I'll get to later.
The story: Rock musician Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas) gets attacked and killed by a gang on a dark October night. One year later Eric rises from his grave, now undead and guided by a mysterious crow. He remembers what happened one year ago, on that fateful night, and the faces of his murderers and starts to take his revenge on them one by one until he reaches the top of the lowlifes, their boss, Top Dollar (brilliantly played by Michael Wincott).
This was Brandon Lee's last movie. During filming a gun that had not been properly prepared was fired at him and what was intended to be an ordinary, fictional death scene turned out be a quite real one. Still, after a while, the movie was finished with a few rewrites and a few scenes recorded with Brandons face digitally placed on a body double.
There has been some changes to the original story from the comic book, but they are small (and in some cases an improvement).The overall tone is kept and the movie respects the material on which it is based. It dares to be dark in a decade where most comic book movies at their darkest were like Batman Forever. It's not just dark "because it's cool", but because it fits the story and theme. A darkness that knows the right time to step aside and let some humanity seep in.
In retrospect the story is very simple, the bad guys does not seem like more than a bunch of two-dimensional troublemakers who likes to cause mayhem for the sake of mayhem and at it's core it's an ordinary revenge story (with a bit of supernatural thrown in). But it's a little bit more than that. In the hands of someone else it could have been just another revenge-movie and nothing (or not much) more. But thankfully the writers David J Schow and John Shirley, the director Alex Proyas and Brandon Lee gave it that little extra. It's not just about revenge but also about losing and finding one's way and finding glimmers of light in the darkness. Michael Wincott's performance as Top Dollar should not go unmentioned either as it is very memorable. There is a little extra depth to his character with his doubts, thoughts about death and a scene where he monologues about how he, over the years, has lost a little bit of passion for his work. Brandon Lee does a good job at balancing between being consumed by revenge but at the same time trying to hold on to his humanity. A minor complaint about the movie would be that one of the characters at one point becomes a damsel in distress. something typical that we've seen before and something the movie, up to that point, managed to avoid. But like I said, it's a minor complaint and the actress playing her is good.
One can not help to wonder if this movie could have been just as successful (or at least have a similar success) without the death of the main star. I like to think that it could. Because there's more to it than what it could have been, had it not been made by someone who knew how to give it that little extra.
The story: Rock musician Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée Shelly Webster (Sofia Shinas) gets attacked and killed by a gang on a dark October night. One year later Eric rises from his grave, now undead and guided by a mysterious crow. He remembers what happened one year ago, on that fateful night, and the faces of his murderers and starts to take his revenge on them one by one until he reaches the top of the lowlifes, their boss, Top Dollar (brilliantly played by Michael Wincott).
This was Brandon Lee's last movie. During filming a gun that had not been properly prepared was fired at him and what was intended to be an ordinary, fictional death scene turned out be a quite real one. Still, after a while, the movie was finished with a few rewrites and a few scenes recorded with Brandons face digitally placed on a body double.
There has been some changes to the original story from the comic book, but they are small (and in some cases an improvement).The overall tone is kept and the movie respects the material on which it is based. It dares to be dark in a decade where most comic book movies at their darkest were like Batman Forever. It's not just dark "because it's cool", but because it fits the story and theme. A darkness that knows the right time to step aside and let some humanity seep in.
In retrospect the story is very simple, the bad guys does not seem like more than a bunch of two-dimensional troublemakers who likes to cause mayhem for the sake of mayhem and at it's core it's an ordinary revenge story (with a bit of supernatural thrown in). But it's a little bit more than that. In the hands of someone else it could have been just another revenge-movie and nothing (or not much) more. But thankfully the writers David J Schow and John Shirley, the director Alex Proyas and Brandon Lee gave it that little extra. It's not just about revenge but also about losing and finding one's way and finding glimmers of light in the darkness. Michael Wincott's performance as Top Dollar should not go unmentioned either as it is very memorable. There is a little extra depth to his character with his doubts, thoughts about death and a scene where he monologues about how he, over the years, has lost a little bit of passion for his work. Brandon Lee does a good job at balancing between being consumed by revenge but at the same time trying to hold on to his humanity. A minor complaint about the movie would be that one of the characters at one point becomes a damsel in distress. something typical that we've seen before and something the movie, up to that point, managed to avoid. But like I said, it's a minor complaint and the actress playing her is good.
One can not help to wonder if this movie could have been just as successful (or at least have a similar success) without the death of the main star. I like to think that it could. Because there's more to it than what it could have been, had it not been made by someone who knew how to give it that little extra.
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