The Crow: City of Angels

The Crow: City of Angels is the 1996 sequel to cult movie and comic The Crow by James O'Barr, directed by Tim Pope.

Plot

Vincent Perez plays a man named Ashe Corven, who is killed alongside his son by a gang of criminals, similar to Eric Draven's demise in the first film. As in the first movie, he is resurrected by a supernatural crow and seeks revenge with his new-found powers, killing his murderers one by one until he faces off with the crime boss who'd ordered his death. Along the way he encounters Sarah from the first film, now an adult (played by Mia Kirshner) and obsessed with the paranormal, and she helps him take his revenge. The crime boss, Judah Earl (played by Richard Brooks), wants Ashe's powers for himself, however, and will do his worst to get them.

Several of the plot devices and subplots removed from the movie along with alternate versions of many other scenes from the movie appear in the novelization of the film.

Once again there is a strong soundtrack and two music legends have large acting roles throughout the film - Ian Dury as a friend of Sarah's, and Iggy Pop as one of the more vicious murderers.

There was a video game based on the Movie released on Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn and PC CD-ROM.

The film was followed by The Crow: Salvation in 2000 and TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven.

Cast

• Vincent Perez .... Ashe Corven/The Crow
• Mia Kirshner .... Sarah
• Richard Brooks .... Judah Earl
• Iggy Pop .... Curve
• Thomas Jane .... Nemo
• Vincent Castellanos .... Spider Monkey
• Thuy Trang .... Kali
• Eric Acosta .... Danny
• Ian Dury .... Noah
• Tracey Ellis .... Sybil
• Beverley Mitchell .... Grace

Deleted footage

This movie was heavily cut/edited by Miramax/Dimension Films (the distributor) upon its release. The following footage can only be seen in the workprint and pay-per-view versions of the film:

• After Ashe's resurrection and Sarah takes him back to her loft where he wakes up. He doesn't want to believe that he is dead, so Sarah stabs him in the chest with a kitchen knife to prove it to him. Ashe, with a look of horror and disbelief, pulls the knife out of his chest and then runs away like in the released theatrical version.

• Ashe's last name (Corven) is clearly revealed as he runs back to his garage after his resurrection. The garage reads "Corven's Body Shop."

• In the Ashe/Spider-Monkey's Ashe picks up a pistol and says, "Don't try this at home, kids" before shooting himself in the head to display his invincibility. Ashe then collapses to the ground faking death. As Spider-Monkey approaches him, Ashe pops back up to his feet and scares Spider-Monkey.

• Ashe/thugs have a confrontation outside of the church. Ashe tells one of them that if he (the thug) has a gun he should shoot him. The thug hesitates, and Ashe takes his gun, forcing the thugs to flee.

• After Nemo is killed, Ashe grabs Holly Daze (the stripper Nemo was with) and tells her not to come here again.

• Ashe doesn't burn Danny's painting. Instead, it falls out of Ashe's coat pocket during the Ashe/Judah finale scene where Judah rips it up.

• When Kali fights Ashe she uses a katana instead of a knife and get's her arm broken (hence why she moves on one side after being thrown into the wall by Ashe later in the fight).

• Kali is still alive and slowly dying after being thrown out of the window. She then commands/begs Ashe to finish her quickly. Ashe refuses and leaves her to die slowly as her blood forms the symbol of the crow.

• Ashe changes from a crow then reverts back to human form when he goes down to Kali after throwing her out of the window.

• Judah tells Sarah when he's captured her about himself drowning and nearly dying when he was younger, leading to his obsession with evil and the occult.

• The ending is different. When Ashe sees the spectre of Danny at the festival, instead of Danny saying to Ashe "if you give up now, we won't be together", he instead says "It is time to go now" and Ashe refuses saying he has to save Sarah. By doing so he gives up his chance to return to heaven cursing himself to live on earth for eternity (since he is already dead and hence can't die). When he carries Sarah's body to the church the priest asks him "What will you do now, my son?" Ashe replies that he can't let another shadow take over Los Angeles. The flashback shown at the end of the released film was originally at an earlier point in the film.

Adaptations

The screenplay for City of Angels was adapted into a novel by Chet Williamson as well as a three issue comic book series published by Kitchen Sink Press, both of which feature the original ending of the story.

A video game based on the film was also produced.

Trivia

• Ashe's last name, Corven, is a variation of "Michael Corvin", which was the name Miramax used in this film's teaser trailer. It is also similar to the Latin word for crow, "corvus", which was used for the character of Alex in the sequel.

• Deftones appear in this film during the "day of the dead" festival. Deftones are preforming their song "Teething", which also appears on the movie soundtrack.

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