The Crow: City of Angels Re-issue DVD
Sound and Visual Quality
As with the first movie, "The Crow: City of Angels" is offered in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound & DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound and Widescreen 1.85:1 or full screen Enhanced 16x9. Graeme Revell's score never sounded better, especially the opening piece of music.
DVD Features
Commentary Track
Commentary is presented by Jeff Most (producer), Graeme Revell (composer), Richard Brooks (Judah), Alex McDowell (Production Designer) and Kirsten Everberg (Costume Designer). Each person speaks to his or her involvement with the film. Compared to the first movie's commentary, everyone's comments are made in a generic sense, often reflecting to something from the first film. Jeff Most, who was highly energetic and complimentary in the "Crow" commentary track, is noticeably reserved and less enthusiastic here. On a few occasions, reference to how the film lost its 'soul' in the editing is eluded to as well as to the lack of money. Alex McDowell speaks to the fact that Tim Pope's vision of the movie differed substantially from that of the producer's (Miramax). In the end, the film ended up being cut by the producers to fit the first film's mold, yet it was not shot that way, thus severely compromising Pope's vision. It was a case of the creative entity doing one thing and the production entity molding it into something it wasn't. McDowell's candor on this was refreshing.
"Making Of" Featurette
The behind the scenes featurette contains interviews with Mia Kirshner (Sarah), Richard Brooks (Judah), Iggy Pop (Curve), David Goyer (scriptwriter), Jeff Most (Producer), James O'Barr, Tim Pope (Director), Vincent Perez (Ashe) and Alex McDowell. They discuss everything from the concept of the atmosphere, to the graffiti to why acting choices were made. It is interesting to note that O'Barr is very positive in his comments of the movie, especially of Vincent Perez. At over 20 minutes, the COA behind the scenes featurette is the most detailed and interesting of all the behind the scenes features on the Crow DVDs.
Production and Costume Design
Kirsten Everberg (Costume Design) and Alex McDowell (Production Design) discuss how they created the look and atmosphere of COA. They use storyboards, film clips and their insight to give us a picture of what went into creating the look and feel of the movie. As with the "behind the scenes" feature, this clocks in over 20 minutes as well, offering very detailed commentary. Kirsten and Alex were married a month before the film started, so the already close collaboration of Costume and Production design was made that much more solid.
Original Movie Poster Concept
Over 20 posters designed but not used. There were some very interesting ideas tossed around.
Production Stills
There are over 60 drawn stills featured in this section. Some are seen in the Production/Design feature, but here, along with other stills, they are compared with the filmed scene. It is very interesting to see how a scene starts out as a drawn idea and how the finished product looks compared to the original idea.
DVD Rom Features
Script Viewer
As with "The Crow", fans are able to read the script while playing the movie. The fascination with this script is that it is the complete, final version that Goyer penned. It contains the scenes that were eventually cut from the movie. For fans of COA, this is a glimpse into what you knew was there, all along. And for those that have considered COA the weakest of the three movies, you get to see there was more meat to this movie than viewers were allowed to see.
Chet Williamson COA Novelization
This section is almost worth the entire price of the DVD. Since the novelization is out of print, its inclusion here is a major bonus for COA fans that have been unable to find the Williamson novel. You can play the movie while reading the novel (though it is noted that to preserve the authenticity of the original novelization, it is not synchronized with the film). You are given the option to print the novel, per chapter.
Overall Rating
I have given this DVD an 8 out of 10 crows rating. A higher rating than the first movie DVD because of the very detailed "making of" feature, "production/design" feature and the inclusion of the novelization. The only thing keeping this DVD from being a 10 in my opinion is the lack of deleted scenes. There are many deleted scenes that add to the understanding of the film. I do not know why Miramax continues to hide these from fans. Although, I have my own personal opinions as to why. It is a shame that for whatever reason, we are denied seeing these.
