The Raven 2012 Movie Review: The obligatory brutal and visually bloody murder happens quite early in the movie. After that, there's only the race to save a maidens life that remains, as we see the main character trying to keep up and getting frustrated of being forced to sift through details.
It's a very "safe" adaptation, could have been a lot more bloody and much more twisted.
Also, it's rather sparse with lighting, I know they only had candlelight in that era and the atmosphere they created was fittingly gloomy and dimly lit, but I squinted quite often in a way that certainly did not "add to the experience".
Though it ultimately ends up becoming a fairly standard serial killer story - albeit one with a period setting - THE RAVEN does flirt with greatness at times, at least in the way it handles the character of Edgar Allan Poe. John Cusack is absolutely fantastic in the role, bringing together manic intensity, morose wryness, and melancholic brooding which compliment each other quite nicely, and it's not too hard to imagine the real man being too terribly dissimilar from this portrayal. Cusack is paired with Luke Evans for much of the running time, and Evans is good, too; he is a rather underwritten part, but he makes the most of the dogged detective type by adding an undercurrent of earnestness. It's quite a good-looking, atmospheric movie, with strong cinematography, production design, and costume design; in some ways, it feels not unlike a modern version of sorts of films Hammer made in its heyday. The movie's biggest stumble is in its mystery plot; there is certainly fun to be had in seeing how the film repurposes classic Poe passages, but they're ultimately in service of a fairly standard narrative, the likes of which we've seen many times before. The dialogue is also curiously hit-and-miss, sometimes anachronistic and peppered with clunkers, sometimes truly impactful and evocative. Overall, I appreciated the vibe of the movie quite a bit, and it's always nice to see a period horror movie set in America, so THE RAVEN is worth a watch (especially if you're a fan of Poe), but don't go in expecting a spectacular or surprising story.
The Raven is one of those films that looks good, has a great idea/concept behind it but ultimately fails to provide what fans of the genre desire.
The Raven hints at and advertises itself as a murder mystery but the key to a good murder mystery is being able to solve it without being told by the film until the end, exactly whodunnit.
The Raven does not do this until the very very end. Instead, the film plays more like an adventure film such as Indiana Jones, where the main character receives clues leading him or herself from one clue to the next.
It seems this murder mystery can't be solved by the audience nor by the characters involved... at least not until the very end.
And this is why the film ultimately fails. It's too bad because there was plenty of potential in this film to bring about one of the great mystery films of this decade.
I have come to the realization that I could never be a movie critic. The is largely due to the fact the I know not for what these critics search, but most of them seem to agree upon it. I went into The Raven with no expectations. I had seen the trailer and thought it looked like an interesting alternative history film. A little more mature, perhaps, than the forthcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which I happily hope to see this summer. The Raven received poor reviews. A 22% rating among the actual critics on Rotten Tomatoes and only a 55% of its patrons. This is, however, not enough to dissuade me. If a movie looks interesting to me, I see it.
I must say, I greatly enjoyed The Raven. It was suspenseful. It was entertaining. It was a unique play on the mysterious end of Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe I enjoyed it because I was a Poe-lover going in. Maybe it is because I am a student of history. I do not understand how someone could dislike this film so intensely unless they were looking for a mindless action movie with lots of explosions. I enjoy the crude fun of these movies like many others, however, this does not mean that the entire industry needs to be dumbed down for mass consumption.
The greatest tragedy of Edgar Allan Poe was that of his own life. His existence was wrought with pain, sadness, and tragedy for virtually its entirety. This fact is only overtaken by the perplexing mystery of his death. It is within this factually vacant space that we find this work of intriguing yet impossible fiction. It tells the tragic story of a man devoted to love, yet damned like no other. I thoroughly enjoyed it and fail to see what those so critical of it feel it is lacking. Sometimes the movie doesn't come to you. Sometimes you have to go to it.
This is not a biopic, based on a true story, or inspired by true events movie. It is more of a historical fiction where it takes place in the past and has characters that were real. The movie is a murder mystery based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe with Poe helping the police catch the murderer. It does a good job of keeping you guessing and I didn't figure out the killer until the reveal. It was kind of like Seven where each murder gets worse and lead up to the final result that the killer was taking everyone. Overall a good mystery and John Cusack is good as usual.
The worst thing a horror movie can be is boring. And this delivers exactly that. A nut job kills people in the manner from Poe's stories because... I'm not sure. To get Poe's attention or something by the time it gets to be big reveal I couldn't give a damn. And when you get to the "I'm the killer" part it's pretty obvious because his character is so minor the only reason to have him was to be the killer. Luke Evans as the cop was boring and the only reason why he is even there was to get Poe connected to the investigation in the first place and serves no other real purpose. John Cusack plays Poe and god was it bad. And I like Cusack. He is just not the right guy for a period piece and his delivery is just way to dry for a tortured soul poet who suffers from substance abuse. Gary Oldman, Johnny Depp, or even Nicolas Cage would have been great choices. And then the romance with Alice Eve (though pretty to look at) was another useless character only to serve as motivation to keep Poe involved in the case because the killer made it personal by kidnapping her. The gore is rather bland you except for the pendulum part you never really see any of the serial killings. Just the aftermath. And Saw V did a much better pendulum kill. There really is no reason to give this movie a thought. There could have been something very intriguing and macabre fictional tale about Poe, and I hope one day we get it. Until then watch From Hell. They did it right.
The Raven follows the tale of Edgar Allan Poe are vividly brought to life - and death - in this stylish, gothic thriller starring John Cusack as the infamous author. When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Poe's darkest works, a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) joins forces with Poe in a quest to get inside the killer's mind in order to stop him from making every one of Poe's brutal stories a blood chilling reality. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, which escalates when Poe's love (Alice Eve) becomes the next target.
Before I started this review I did some research on this movie and I found out quite a lot of things about this movie and that's the stress and living hell that these film markers or who ever worked on this movie faced while the budget and the production went completely wrong. This stuff always happens, I mean loads of classic and beloved movies had a lot of things wrong with the budget or the production but it always paid off, but for this movie it didn't and while I didn't see it when it first came out because at the time was watching movies that took my interest. A week ago now I've seen the movie and to out thoughts together I can say that this movie isn't bad but wasn't that good, it's on the level of okay.
John Cusack is a great actor but at the beginning of this movie was a bit over the top with him chewing up the scene and that's only the beginning, but after a while, he actually began to act and for the most of the movie he did great in the role. Nothing Oscar worthy but still a solid performance and he did his best of what he can work with if only the movie had a better script.
The rest of cast like Luke Evans, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Alice Eve and Brendan Gleeson all did a solid performance, just like I said about John Cusack there all did the best of what they got I mean it's not like they did a terrible performance well actually they were good in the movie, not the best performance but still good in a way that I let them have a pass.
The cinematography in this movie looks great, every shot in the movie looked like it took forever to do in some scenes. The set, the costumes, and the makeup look pretty good. The final positive thing I can say is that the movie at least doesn't look cheap like some other big Hollywood movies.
Now for problems and there's a lot: The writing in the movie was pretty bland and blah, the movie also felt really short and I normally don't say that before in my reviews but I felt that the movie ended to quick and it rushed a lot of things to end it which I predict that most people wanted but for me I thought the movie may have improved in some way as it went along but it ended just like that.
The love triangle between Edger Allan Poe and Emily I didn't really care about and this is a bad thing. What I mean is that Emily is like a plot device, the whole movie is about trying to find Emily before it's too late, but here's the thing I don't care about Emily because she wasn't that development and she wasn't all that special to me, now the problem here is that the story is about trying to find her and solve the murder case, but if your movie audience doesn't care about Emily that means they don't care about the story or everything around it and they want it to be over because this nothing there to care about.
Also, it's rather sparse with lighting, I know they only had candlelight in that era and the atmosphere they created was fittingly gloomy and dimly lit, but I squinted quite often in a way that certainly did not "add to the experience".
Though it ultimately ends up becoming a fairly standard serial killer story - albeit one with a period setting - THE RAVEN does flirt with greatness at times, at least in the way it handles the character of Edgar Allan Poe. John Cusack is absolutely fantastic in the role, bringing together manic intensity, morose wryness, and melancholic brooding which compliment each other quite nicely, and it's not too hard to imagine the real man being too terribly dissimilar from this portrayal. Cusack is paired with Luke Evans for much of the running time, and Evans is good, too; he is a rather underwritten part, but he makes the most of the dogged detective type by adding an undercurrent of earnestness. It's quite a good-looking, atmospheric movie, with strong cinematography, production design, and costume design; in some ways, it feels not unlike a modern version of sorts of films Hammer made in its heyday. The movie's biggest stumble is in its mystery plot; there is certainly fun to be had in seeing how the film repurposes classic Poe passages, but they're ultimately in service of a fairly standard narrative, the likes of which we've seen many times before. The dialogue is also curiously hit-and-miss, sometimes anachronistic and peppered with clunkers, sometimes truly impactful and evocative. Overall, I appreciated the vibe of the movie quite a bit, and it's always nice to see a period horror movie set in America, so THE RAVEN is worth a watch (especially if you're a fan of Poe), but don't go in expecting a spectacular or surprising story.
The Raven hints at and advertises itself as a murder mystery but the key to a good murder mystery is being able to solve it without being told by the film until the end, exactly whodunnit.
The Raven does not do this until the very very end. Instead, the film plays more like an adventure film such as Indiana Jones, where the main character receives clues leading him or herself from one clue to the next.
It seems this murder mystery can't be solved by the audience nor by the characters involved... at least not until the very end.
And this is why the film ultimately fails. It's too bad because there was plenty of potential in this film to bring about one of the great mystery films of this decade.
I have come to the realization that I could never be a movie critic. The is largely due to the fact the I know not for what these critics search, but most of them seem to agree upon it. I went into The Raven with no expectations. I had seen the trailer and thought it looked like an interesting alternative history film. A little more mature, perhaps, than the forthcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which I happily hope to see this summer. The Raven received poor reviews. A 22% rating among the actual critics on Rotten Tomatoes and only a 55% of its patrons. This is, however, not enough to dissuade me. If a movie looks interesting to me, I see it.
I must say, I greatly enjoyed The Raven. It was suspenseful. It was entertaining. It was a unique play on the mysterious end of Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe I enjoyed it because I was a Poe-lover going in. Maybe it is because I am a student of history. I do not understand how someone could dislike this film so intensely unless they were looking for a mindless action movie with lots of explosions. I enjoy the crude fun of these movies like many others, however, this does not mean that the entire industry needs to be dumbed down for mass consumption.
The worst thing a horror movie can be is boring. And this delivers exactly that. A nut job kills people in the manner from Poe's stories because... I'm not sure. To get Poe's attention or something by the time it gets to be big reveal I couldn't give a damn. And when you get to the "I'm the killer" part it's pretty obvious because his character is so minor the only reason to have him was to be the killer. Luke Evans as the cop was boring and the only reason why he is even there was to get Poe connected to the investigation in the first place and serves no other real purpose. John Cusack plays Poe and god was it bad. And I like Cusack. He is just not the right guy for a period piece and his delivery is just way to dry for a tortured soul poet who suffers from substance abuse. Gary Oldman, Johnny Depp, or even Nicolas Cage would have been great choices. And then the romance with Alice Eve (though pretty to look at) was another useless character only to serve as motivation to keep Poe involved in the case because the killer made it personal by kidnapping her. The gore is rather bland you except for the pendulum part you never really see any of the serial killings. Just the aftermath. And Saw V did a much better pendulum kill. There really is no reason to give this movie a thought. There could have been something very intriguing and macabre fictional tale about Poe, and I hope one day we get it. Until then watch From Hell. They did it right.
The Raven follows the tale of Edgar Allan Poe are vividly brought to life - and death - in this stylish, gothic thriller starring John Cusack as the infamous author. When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Poe's darkest works, a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) joins forces with Poe in a quest to get inside the killer's mind in order to stop him from making every one of Poe's brutal stories a blood chilling reality. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, which escalates when Poe's love (Alice Eve) becomes the next target.
Before I started this review I did some research on this movie and I found out quite a lot of things about this movie and that's the stress and living hell that these film markers or who ever worked on this movie faced while the budget and the production went completely wrong. This stuff always happens, I mean loads of classic and beloved movies had a lot of things wrong with the budget or the production but it always paid off, but for this movie it didn't and while I didn't see it when it first came out because at the time was watching movies that took my interest. A week ago now I've seen the movie and to out thoughts together I can say that this movie isn't bad but wasn't that good, it's on the level of okay.
John Cusack is a great actor but at the beginning of this movie was a bit over the top with him chewing up the scene and that's only the beginning, but after a while, he actually began to act and for the most of the movie he did great in the role. Nothing Oscar worthy but still a solid performance and he did his best of what he can work with if only the movie had a better script.
The rest of cast like Luke Evans, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Alice Eve and Brendan Gleeson all did a solid performance, just like I said about John Cusack there all did the best of what they got I mean it's not like they did a terrible performance well actually they were good in the movie, not the best performance but still good in a way that I let them have a pass.
The cinematography in this movie looks great, every shot in the movie looked like it took forever to do in some scenes. The set, the costumes, and the makeup look pretty good. The final positive thing I can say is that the movie at least doesn't look cheap like some other big Hollywood movies.
Now for problems and there's a lot: The writing in the movie was pretty bland and blah, the movie also felt really short and I normally don't say that before in my reviews but I felt that the movie ended to quick and it rushed a lot of things to end it which I predict that most people wanted but for me I thought the movie may have improved in some way as it went along but it ended just like that.
The love triangle between Edger Allan Poe and Emily I didn't really care about and this is a bad thing. What I mean is that Emily is like a plot device, the whole movie is about trying to find Emily before it's too late, but here's the thing I don't care about Emily because she wasn't that development and she wasn't all that special to me, now the problem here is that the story is about trying to find her and solve the murder case, but if your movie audience doesn't care about Emily that means they don't care about the story or everything around it and they want it to be over because this nothing there to care about.
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