If only Vincent Price were still alive. Perhaps the legendary Price, himself a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, and who starred in many adaptations of Poe's stories, could have brought the necessary combination of grand passion, inner turmoil, and sly wit to The Raven that it needed to succeed. But Price is of course long gone, and so we must make do with John Cusack. And it just doesn't work.
The Raven is based upon a great premise: in 19th-century Baltimore, a sadistic killer is on the loose, his murders based on the stories of the infamous poet and purveyor of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe, penniless and drunk most of the time, is at first a suspect in the murders, but Detective Fields (Luke Evans) realizes that however otherwise dissolute Poe may be, he is not a murderer, and so enlists the writer's aid in cracking the case. The stakes are raised, however, when Poe's own fiancé, Emily (Alice Eve) is kidnapped. Can Fields and Poe solve the mystery of the murderer's identity in time to save Emily's life, or will Poe be undone by the very fruits of his own grisly imagination? Again, it's a great premise. Poe is one of the greatest horror writers of all time, and a thriller based upon his lurid tales of madness and death has a lot of potential. Sadly, The Raven—which takes its title from perhaps Poe's most famous poem—never realizes its lofty ambitions. The aforementioned John Cusack is the first problem the film is saddled with, for while Cusack is a capable actor the complexities of playing the troubled, rather enigmatic Edgar Allan Poe prove totally beyond him. Cusack never makes his version of Poe likable, or even interesting, and in many ways Evans's much more ably realized Detective Fields is the real star of the show. Alice Eve's lovely and charming performance as Emily goes for naught, as her character doesn't have enough to do and is so underwritten that she lacks any real personality.
The Raven does look good, and there are many appealing shots of fog-shrouded streets and dark forests. But the atmosphere is wasted, and the elements of Poe's stories which make it into the script are misused. Familiar Poe stories like The Pit and the Pendulum and The Murders in the Rue Morgue are used for a few gory set pieces that are merely insults to the original tales which inspire them. Suspense is diluted by the inability of the director, John McTeigue, to decide what kind of movie he really wants to make: a mystery? A thriller? A horror-comedy? The Raven isn't solidly any of these things, and so it becomes terribly boring by default.
If you really want a good movie inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, there are a few of them out there, including at least two likewise called The Raven: one starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff , and the other featuring Vincent Price and, again, Boris Karloff. Though both films have entirely different stories to tell, they are also both superior to the new movie in every way. Poe himself was a merciless critic. Were he alive today, I think his own review of The Raven would make mine look glowing by comparison.
The Raven is based upon a great premise: in 19th-century Baltimore, a sadistic killer is on the loose, his murders based on the stories of the infamous poet and purveyor of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe, penniless and drunk most of the time, is at first a suspect in the murders, but Detective Fields (Luke Evans) realizes that however otherwise dissolute Poe may be, he is not a murderer, and so enlists the writer's aid in cracking the case. The stakes are raised, however, when Poe's own fiancé, Emily (Alice Eve) is kidnapped. Can Fields and Poe solve the mystery of the murderer's identity in time to save Emily's life, or will Poe be undone by the very fruits of his own grisly imagination? Again, it's a great premise. Poe is one of the greatest horror writers of all time, and a thriller based upon his lurid tales of madness and death has a lot of potential. Sadly, The Raven—which takes its title from perhaps Poe's most famous poem—never realizes its lofty ambitions. The aforementioned John Cusack is the first problem the film is saddled with, for while Cusack is a capable actor the complexities of playing the troubled, rather enigmatic Edgar Allan Poe prove totally beyond him. Cusack never makes his version of Poe likable, or even interesting, and in many ways Evans's much more ably realized Detective Fields is the real star of the show. Alice Eve's lovely and charming performance as Emily goes for naught, as her character doesn't have enough to do and is so underwritten that she lacks any real personality.
The Raven does look good, and there are many appealing shots of fog-shrouded streets and dark forests. But the atmosphere is wasted, and the elements of Poe's stories which make it into the script are misused. Familiar Poe stories like The Pit and the Pendulum and The Murders in the Rue Morgue are used for a few gory set pieces that are merely insults to the original tales which inspire them. Suspense is diluted by the inability of the director, John McTeigue, to decide what kind of movie he really wants to make: a mystery? A thriller? A horror-comedy? The Raven isn't solidly any of these things, and so it becomes terribly boring by default.
If you really want a good movie inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, there are a few of them out there, including at least two likewise called The Raven: one starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff , and the other featuring Vincent Price and, again, Boris Karloff. Though both films have entirely different stories to tell, they are also both superior to the new movie in every way. Poe himself was a merciless critic. Were he alive today, I think his own review of The Raven would make mine look glowing by comparison.