"Raven" - another Hollywood failure

The role that Brandon Lee played in 1994 was now performed by Bill Scarsgard. His lover was played by FKA Twigs. It did not help

The Raven was released in the Russian rental - a remake of the 1994 classic film, on the set of which actor Brandon Lee died . The British director Rupert Sanders tried to move out of the original source extremely and make a “raven” completely different, but this plan did not justify itself: the picture turned out to be unconvincing and weak. The only thing for which it is worth watching is the game of Bill Scarsgard, who played the main role. More about all the shortcomings of the new “Raven” is told by film critic Anton Dolin.

Eric and Shelley loved each other more life, swearing in eternal fidelity. And then the villains killed them. Then the mystical black raven helped Eric to rebel from the dead in order to avenge the murder of his beloved. The plot of "Raven", the cult graphic novel by James Oʼ Barr, filmed in 1994 Alex Prias, has already forgotten. The legendary film was followed by some less successful sequels. And now, by the thirty years of the classic “raven”, it was decided to restart the franchise.

But the miracle did not happen. Before us is a typical Hollywood failure, no coincidence in the end of summer. August 2024 in the film distribution was noted by the only pleasant surprise- the seventh "stranger." And the “raven”, like “Borderlands” in front of him, turned out to be a victim of endless alterations and compromises (for the first time the project began to discuss in 2008, since then the director, screenwriters and performers of all roles have changed). In such agony, nothing good is usually born. The result is a lifeless and strained attempt to repeat what remains in the twentieth century. Still, prosperous resurrection from the dead more often happens in the cinema than in reality.

British director Rupert Sanders is the first harbinger of failure. Both of his previous films indicate the author’s inability to convincingly appropriate someone else's material. The Snow White and the Hunter at least bribed epic intonation, the “ghost in armor” was so obviously inferior to the animated source that even the participation of Scarlett Johansson and Takesi Kitano did not help.

The Raven is trying to copy the impressive Gothic atmosphere of the Play of Prias - undoubtedly, the master of Kitsch, but the original and sensitive to fashion - and from the first frames oppresses the pile of sprouted stamps. The hero as a child was injured by the death of a white horse, how do you like it? The scenes of the battle here are not only too bloodthirsty, but also monotonous, at times they are simply boring to watch. Love, on the contrary, is revealed excessively tenderly and at the same time inexpressive.

The singer Fka Twigs, which was not shining for the role of Shelley and not shining with acting talents, received more replicas and scenes than her predecessor from 1994 by Sofia Shinas. But in fact, they only emphasized the official’s officiality sacrificed. Not helping the profession did not help: in the “Vorona” of Prias, Eric was a rock musician, then shelly has vocal talent, and the poet Eric only writes texts for her.

Music in the film is still not enough, and its role is incomparably more faded than in the original. The 1994 Raven became famous among other things with a stylish soundtrack, for which the most fashionable alternative groups wrote the material - from the living classics of The Cure to the then career of Nine Inch Nails. In the current “Vorona” the monotonous melodies of Folker Bertelmann, familiar from “On the Western Front without Changes”, dominate Netflix. The feeling of joy is except for the old hit Joy Division, and then from pure nostalgia. The only original musical element of the picture is the opera Jakomo Meyerber “Robert-Devil”, at the premiere of which the main battle takes place. But for some reason, the audience in the hall does not hear the shots in the lobby-and this is only one of the countless carelessness of the picture.

Sanders and the authors of the script, Zach Bailin and William Schneider, did everything possible to distance themselves from the film of Prias. They came up with other motives for the crime, developed the design of the afterlife - also surprisingly banal, invented new villains led by the charismatic long -liver Vincent Rog (Danny Houston’s antihero seriously served Satan, while the previous “Vorona” was quite enough for ruthless bandits and rapists). The creators of the picture even introduced a mystical guardian angel, whose role was entrusted to the Frenchman Boisil (“Patriots”, “Witnesses”). In general, the European accent of the picture sounds almost obsessively - it was shot in Prague and the environs of Munich, although America tried to reproduce. Obviously, this was supposed to increase the authentic “gothic” of the image, but led only to the blur of geography and the time of action.

The result of all plot innovations is the impaired balance of intrigue. For example, she has a absurdly long exposition: the murder of Eric and Shelley, from whom the plot really starts, occurs half an hour after the beginning. On the contrary, from that moment the action is feverishly accelerated, swallowing and without pronouncing many motivations.

Is there at least something in the new "Vorona" that deserves a trip to the cinema? There is a specific answer to this question. Sanders’s painting is the benefit of Bill Skarsgard, one of the eight children of the great Swedish artist Stellan Skarsgard (“dissecting the waves”, “dogville”), four of whom decided to follow in the footsteps of his father. The audience knows better than Alexander (“Melancholy”, “Varangian”, “Heirs” ), but Bill, after his appearance in the appearance of the clown Pennyiz from“It”, cannot be forgotten. In unrecognizable makeup or outside of him - for example, in the role of an ominous marquis fromJohn Wick - 4 , - Bill Scarsgard seems to be born to play perverted villains. It will not pass for a year, as we will see him in the roles of the vampire of Orlok from the new “Nosferat” and again Penniviz, already in the series “It”.

Of course, the Scarsgard cannot be compared with Brandon Lee - the son of Bruce Lee, who died on the set of a raven from a gunshot wound. The film of Pryaas was his tombstone. But the new “raven” allows you to appreciate the rare psychophysics and fragile charisma of Scarsgard in a dramatic role.

Anton Dolin