* BTeamSequel: Creator/AlexProyas had no interest in returning to direct.
* TheCastShowoff: Thuy Trang was an accomplished martial artist and convinced Tim Pope to allow her fight scene to be extended to show her capabilities.
* CreatorBacklash: Both Tim Pope and Creator/DavidSGoyer disowned the film.
* DarkhorseCasting: It was decided that an American actor would bring too much baggage to the film, so the Swiss Creator/VincentPerez was cast, based on his performance in ''Film/LaReineMargot''. He was fairly well known in Europe, but not in America.
* DeletedScene: There was an awful lot that ended up on the cutting room floor. Some were tossed because they mirrored the first film [[{{Sequelitis}} too closely.]] Others were cut in favor of a shorter running time, leaving the film over ''half'' its original running time. Most of the scenes weren't shown outside of tie-in CD-ROM and on a pay-per-view version that ran back in the 90s, and have since completely disappeared. All of them were retained in the novelization, and include:
** The film originally opened with a mysterious horse rider riding through Limbo with the Crow flying overhead, which leaves for the world of the living and lands on the pier, where Ashe and Danny's murder takes place, the gang's cruel mockery is longer, Judah is absent from this version, and Sarah's monologue is longer.
** Sarah in the loft was longer, showing her more freaked out about her vision of Ashe's death.
** The scene with Sarah tattooing her customer was longer and included him getting nervous and leaving to vomit in the bathroom, so she gives him some wine to calm his nerves.
** The scene with Curve assaulting Noah and Sarah and the following scene of Sarah breaking down in parking lot was placed here, rather then its random placement later on in the film.
** Sarah has a dream where she sees Eric from the original film, silently telling her to follow the Crow. The scene with her and the Crow in her loft is longer.
** As Sarah approaches the pier, she is confronted by a trio of vagrants, intending to rape and mug her, but is saved by the Crow, which attacks the leader, pecking his eye out.
** The flashbacks of Ashe and Danny were longer, with Ashe reading a bedtime story to Danny.
** Ashe refuses to believe he's back from the dead when he wakes up in Sarah's apartment and even begins to come at her angrily, so Sarah promptly takes a kitchen knife and stabs him in the chest to prove to him it's real. This is why he abruptly runs off in shock in the final cut and why he's clutching his chest.
** After running away from Sarah, Ashe catches a glimpse of his reflection in a Halloween store window, which he smashes before continuing to run.
** In Ashe's flashback he asks Danny how one would tell the difference between night and day if the sun was blue, but before Danny can answer they hear the gunshots.
** The scene of Ashe losing his mind in a fit of rage and trashing his garage was longer, and when Sarah comforts him, he answers the question he asked Danny in the flashback about telling the difference between night and day if the sun was blue, there'd be no moon.
** Ashe quotes a poem before he reveals himself to Spider Monkey, who demands to know who Ashe is before Ashe says the line 'Does the Corpse wear a familiar face?' Spider Monkey then realizes Ashe is back and tries to grab a gun, only for Ashe to reveal he already took it and shoots himself in the head, exclaiming "Don't try this at home, kids!" and jumps right back up to freak Spider Monkey out.
** A small scene of Ashe approaching the Peep-O-Rama.
** When Nemo approaches the Peep-O-Rama he vulgarly taunts the Hindu barker, who doesn't react.
** The bit with Judah and Curve was longer, ending with Judah shouting to let Ashe come, only to cut to Holly Daze about to have an orgasm.
** Ashe's beating of Nemo was even more brutal, and the Hindu uses a silent alarm to alert Judah, explaining how Curve, Kali, and the twins knew to go there.
** Ashe grabs the terrified Holly Daze and sees into her past and her personal pain of enduring sexual humiliation to make her way through life, and tells her to value what she has and never return to this place.
** Curve sees the Crow outside of the Peep-O-Rama and reaches for his gun, only for it to disappear, he then asks a wino if he saw the same thing.
** Kali kicks Nemo's dead mouth open to get the note out, to which Curve sarcastically states he likes how Kali is so sentimental, and upon opening the origami crow he sees the words 'I Know Why Jesus Wept' written on it. After being spooked by Ashe's call he leads Kali away.
** When Ashe leaves the phone booth he is confronted by a drug craving teenage boy with a gun, aiming to mug Ashe for drug money. Ashe then compares the teen to a highwayman and tells him he should demand people to 'stand and deliver', which the boy does, only for Ashe to make a deal with the teen, survive a game of Russian Roulette and go to a drug clinic to get help or lose and die. Ashe, wanting to help the boy, suddenly shoots himself in the head, scaring the boy to leave for a drug clinic.
** Ashe has an encounter with a young Mexican boy at the chapel who also calls him 'Santa Muerte'.
** The scene between Ashe and Sarah to develop their romance was much longer, Sarah tells Ashe about her past, about Eric and the events of the first film and how Darla eventually became a junkie again and OD'd, causing Sarah to briefly fall into drugs before going clean and leaving Detroit with Gabriel, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse no mention of what happened to Albrect though.]] She also tells Ashe about Grace, thus explaining Ashe's run in with Grace, which was supposed to be after this scene. Ashe also tells her more about his own past before she finally tells him that if he refuses to leave the world of the living, he will be damned.
** The scene with Judah, Curve, Kali, and Sybil in the tower is longer, and shows more of Curve's growing fear and paranoia and tension between he and Kali.
** The second Ashe/Sarah romance scene is a bit longer.
** The following scene in Judah's tower is also longer, and establishes how Judah figures out he needs the blood of the Crow.
** Ashe doesn't burn Danny's drawing, which comes into play later.
** Curve and Kali's interrogation of Noah is longer, and Curve gets angry with Kali for murdering him, but she justifies herself by saying Noah dishonored her by calling her a bitch. Curve discovers Sarah's address in some business papers, thus explaining how Kali and the Twins knew where she lived. When they leave, Curve feels his crow tattoo bleeding and he flees in terror, knowing he's next.
** The fight at the bar is longer, with the bar thugs accidentally killing some patrons before Ashe puts an end to them, causing the bartender to run away. Ashe then notices Curve has taken off.
** The bike chase was longer, with Curve nearly getting hit by a delivery van.
** Kali and the Twins breaking into Sarah's apartment was longer, with Sarah trying to hide in the bathroom, where she hides Gabriel in a closet before Kali drags her out. Kali says that Judah has given orders for Sarah not to be harmed, but she still wants to see Sarah suffer so orders the Twins to destroy her loft and personally slashes Sarah's painting herself.
** The final confrontation between Ashe and Curve was longer, with Ashe quoting the poem ''A Rendezvous with Death'' to freak Curve out, which is effective as Curve pisses himself in fear before rushing at Ashe in a kamikaze move. After the crash, Ashe tosses away the sawed-off shotgun before taking Curve's pistol for himself. He touches Curve and sees into Curve's painful past and begins to feel sorry for him before dragging him out into the river.
** Kali tries to make a deal with Ashe, go kill Judah and he and Sarah can leave while she takes over Judah's criminal empire, but Ashe refuses, wanting to kill her for what she did to Danny. Kali also reveals she murdered her little brother when she was fourteen and has no regrets, making Ashe want to kill her even more, as he understands she was the worst, most evil of the gang.
** Ashe and Kali's fight was much longer.
** Kali is still alive after being thrown out the window. A shadow of the crow flies down to her and morphs into Ashe. She begs him to [[MercyKill kill her,]] claiming that she has earned an honorable death, but he refuses, and [[FateWorseThanDeath leaves her to bleed out before a pack of street thugs come to rape her.]]
** Sarah's scene with Judah and Sybil is much longer, and Judah reveals Noah's death to Sarah to torment her and his motivations in wanting the crow's power: as a child, he had a near-death experience where he visited Hell... he enjoyed what he saw but came back with forbidden knowledge and compares it to what Hamlet's father said about the afterlife, leading him to become what he is and now he wants the power to defeat death itself and uses Dante's Inferno as an example of what to do: to escape hell one must go to its center and to defeat death one must trade places with it.
** When Ashe arrives at the street party he crashes into a horse-drawn carriage, the driver and passengers get out to help him but he's already recovered and moving into the crowd. The carriage can still be seen in the background when he arrives.
** Judah explains what the Camera Obscura is to Sarah before showing her the misericords.
** Ashe's climb up the tower is longer, and he fights the Twins. He shatters a huge window and uses the glass to decapitate one and impale the other through the back.
** As Ashe falls, two civilians on the street, Louis and Amede, witness him fall, causing the rest of the crowd to see it happen, Louis wants to see if Ashe is okay after he lands, but Amede says he's dead for sure, and after Judah drinks the blood of the Crow, Louis notices the murder of crows overhead.
** Ashe's talk with Danny was different, with Danny pleading for his dad to come to the land of the dead, and if he keeps fighting they can never be together again. Ashe can't bring himself to abandon Sarah, so forces himself to refuse, but Danny warns Ashe in a dark voice, hinting at some other dark spirit involved in the Crow, before pleading with his dad one last time and saying a tearful goodbye before vanishing into the crowd.
** After Ashe wakes up from his vision, Louis and Amede and a few others are startled, but Louis is happy Ashe is alive and rubs it in Amede's face before asking Ashe if he's okay, only for Ashe to catch a glimpse of a small child-like figure in the crowd. Louis and Amede watch as Ashe chases after what he thinks is Danny into the crowd, only to run into a drunk dwarf who mocks Ashe, thinking he wants sex.
** Judah bursts out of the doors of the tower with newfound raw strength, using the chains that held the door to attack Ashe instead of a rope.
** Ashe and Judah's fight is much longer and more personal, with barbs traded before Ashe uses Curve's pistol to shoot Judah, who withstands it and then begins to lay a brutal beat down on Ashe, while Louis, Amede, and the rest of the crowd think it's just a show that Judah is putting on for them in celebration of Day of the Dead.
** Sybil explains herself to Sarah after freeing her, saying that the Judah she once loved is gone and could take over the world with his newfound invincibility if he's not stopped. As Sarah gets into an elevator and heads for the street, Sybil begs God to forgive her for her part in Judah's evil.
** Judah and Ashe's fight continues, Ashe getting the shit beaten out of him, and when he is hung up by Judah, Amede assures Louis that it's simply a trick and his grandparents saw street performers in Paris do similar things. Danny's drawing then falls out of Ashe's pocket and Judah [[KickTheDog rips it up, mocking Ashe and Danny as he does so.]]
** When Sarah arrives she begs people in the crowd to help Ashe, but Louis assures her it's just a show, despite her claim it's real.
** [[spoiler: After Sarah is stabbed by Judah]], the whole crowd becomes silent, with Louis and Amede realizing it is real.
** When the Crows fly down to Ashe, he was to feel the pain of others like him, seeing faces of past Crows, including Eric, who heal Ashe's wounds.
** Judah was originally violently ripped and torn apart by the crows, his flesh torn from his body before his still living and screaming skeleton is taken away by the murder of crows.
** [[spoiler: Sarah's death is longer, Ashe crying the whole time.]]
** As Ashe leaves with [[spoiler:Sarah's body,]] Louis says he is sorry to Ashe, who does not react and simply goes on. Louis and Amede wonder if they could have done something to stop Judah and [[spoiler: save Sarah.]] Amede, feeling guilty, wonders if that means they're all awful people, but Louis says they can try to be better before musing that the city of angels is full of ghosts and devils, but Ashe and Sarah might have been the real angels, even if they were dark ones before leaving the streets to go home. Sybil watches from the Camera Obscura before setting the tied up Stag Beetle free, and then following it into the shadows.
** Ashe brings [[spoiler: Sarah's body]] to the chapel from earlier, and the Priest asks Ashe what he will do now. Ashe responds with "This city is full of shadows, one more won't make it any darker." He leaves the chapel to find the sun rising, and clutches the ring to his chest before he sees Grace.
** Ashe takes Sarah's journal before destroying her apartment so [[spoiler: he won't be tortured by the memory of failing to save her.]]
** [[spoiler: [[BittersweetEnding We discover that the horse rider in limbo from the beginning of the film is Sarah, hinting that she will somehow become the next Crow and return to reunite with Ashe.]]]]
* ExecutiveMeddling:
** The film was originally going to end on a much darker note. As hinted at the first movie's deleted scenes with the Skull Cowboy, the Crow can only stay in the land of the living as long as the person has unfinished business. Danny comes to Ashe during the battle with Judah, telling him he has to leave. Ashe refuses, saying he has to save [[spoiler: Sarah.]] During the battle, [[spoiler: Sarah]] is killed. With an innocent person dead because of his actions, Ashe then becomes unable to move on to the land of the dead to be reunited with his son. Neither alive nor dead, he's condemned to wander through Los Angeles for eternity. Deciding this was too dark and depressing, a new ending was cobbled together from scenes already shot and dialogue being dubbed over, such as Danny encouraging his father instead of telling him to leave.
** ''Creator/HarveyWeinstein'' had the film completely retooled after production had basically wrapped, in order to try and make it more similar to the first installment. This included everything from cutting down multiple scenes, which destroys much of the pacing of the film, character backstories, and an entirely new ending. The results were that, while the film did open at #1, it did not stay that way for long, with the main complain ironically being that the film was too similar to the first one.
* FranchiseKiller: The film's overwhelmingly negative reception led to the rest of the franchise going straight-to-video.
* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: James O'Barr attempted to write the script himself, but all he could think about was his deceased friend, Creator/BrandonLee. He eventually told Tim Pope that he couldn't do it, but gave his blessing, as long as it was its own story.
* MissingTrailerScene: The theatrical trailers show some deleted scenes and extra shots; an extra shot of Ashe walking towards Curve after shooting his motorcycle and blowing it up, a couple of deleted scenes from the fight scene between Ashe and Kali, showing Kali swinging something on Ashe, shadow of the giant crow on the wall morphing into Ashe (originally this scene happened right after Ashe throws Kali out the window), Ashe kissing Sarah after she died, close up of Sarah's ring (originally Ashe was sitting in church looking at it).
* NoStuntDouble: Creator/VincentPerez did use a stuntman for some scenes; however, he insisted on doing the stunts at the final scene of the movie himself, including falling from a building from five stories up, being beaten with a whip, and being hung from a streetlight.
* TheOtherDarrin: Mira Kirshner replaced Rochelle Davies as Sarah.
* RefittedForSequel: The sequel incorporates the Crow rhyme from the comic that didn't make it to the first film. Also, Ashe is a mechanic, which was Eric's profession in the original comic.
* ThrowItIn: When Creator/ThomasJane slams his head in the car, his wig falls off. This was an accident that Tim Pope thought was funny enough to leave in.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** [[Music/BonJovi Jon Bon Jovi]] auditioned for the lead role.
** Music/ToriAmos was considered for the role of Sarah, but refused because she did not like the character.
** UsefulNotes/NewOrleans was considered as a setting.
** The main character was originally going to be named "Michael Corvin".
** Wanting to avoid comparisons with the first film, David S. Goyer originally intended to have Sarah return as a female Crow.
** Another idea was to set the story in 19th-century England. Eventually, it was decided the story would be centred on two brothers who are murdered in Los Angeles. In that script, Ashe and Danny were the brothers, with Ashe being the one brought back to avenge their deaths. The original script also featured two of the villains from the first film, Grange and Top Dollar, resurrected to fight Ashe; it would reveal that Grange survived being shot and was now haunted by Top Dollar's ghost, he would resurrect Top Dollar by stabbing out Judah's eyes and placing Top Dollar's eyes into his body, transforming Judah into Top Dollar. When Ashe defeated Top Dollar, with the crows carrying his soul to hell, he would put an end to Judah's suffering.
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