L'ombre du mal

A merging of the life of Edgar Allan Poe, his poetry, the crimes of his stories and a woven, fictional tale of all of the above is "The Raven". In the opening minute, I was ready to knock the film down for missing some of the significant details of The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Except this film isn't trying to faithfully recreate anything, you just have to get interested in a Poe-based detective story.

Yes, it is fairly gruesome. Perhaps more blood and violence than you would typically find in a Poe story, but as the newspaper editor insisted, that's what the people want. That's likely true, but what I like about Edgar Allan Poe's writing is the intelligence, prose and soulfulness that would be hiding amongst all the murderers and dead bodies. Most stories can be deduced to be about something entirely other than just the crimes. That wasn't really the case here, but that's hardly the fault of the film as they are different mediums.

They might not have gotten the underlying meaning, but they did the get the true nature of Poe accurate. His gloomy, brooding obsession with death, women and alcohol. I've always been convinced of John Cusack's aptitude for this role, and contrary to popular belief, he was very good. He was more subdued than most people were probably expecting. No action stunts and no over-the-top dramatics, he just showed how words and his propensity for gin would haunt him. He delivered only a few quick lines of wit, and I'm assuming that was the issue people had. From all that I have read from people wanting Robert Downey, Jr in this role, I'm assuming they have confused the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes with the real-life writer of Poe. All that I can say to that is thank God Cusack never got confused.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has credited Poe as inspiration for the creation of his famous detective. I'm afraid the filmmakers have tried to re-pay the favour and took some action cues from the recent movies. Watching bullets fly through the air really takes away from the few things they did so well.

"The Raven" is a good watch for Poe fans with references to many of his stories and poems and they found great moments to include some of his illustrious and lasting lines. Although I would have liked it more if the movie was just a dramatic recreation of his famous poem, at least Cusack did offer a reading of The Raven which probably mirrored that of Poe himself.

This is a clever, well-made movie, but I think there are a couple of things that stop it from being better than it is.

The story is not dissimilar to David Fincher's "Seven", in that case it was killings inspired by the seven deadly sins while in "The Raven", a serial killer creates gory scenarios based on the stories of Edgar Allen Poe.

Inspector Emmett Fields, played by Luke Evans, while investigating a bizarre double murder, realises that it has a connection to a story by Edgar Allen Poe. He engages the author to help him find the killer. Poe, played by John Cusack, is hesitant at first, but soon throws himself into the hunt, forming an alliance with Fields.

The killer's true intentions become a little clearer when Poe's Fiancée, Emily, played by Alice Eve, is kidnapped. Kept in a coffin, she is tormented by her captor. Eventually, Poe works out who the killer is, and strikes a deadly deal in exchange for Emily's life.

I think John Cusack struggles to find the right balance for Poe. Admittedly, he is more settled in the role by the end of the movie, but he knocks it off balance with some early drunk scenes with lots of yelling; actors portraying people who are drunk are almost as annoying as people who are drunk. His performance is uneven, especially in his affection for Emily - he seems oddly unconvincing in some scenes although he says he would sacrifice his life for her. Luke Evans, with a far more understated performance, steals the show as Inspector Fields.

Visually brilliant, the film features ever more elaborate techniques to dispose of the killer's victims, The ingenuity and the amount of work involved would have required a crew the size of the one that built the Panama Canal, however, with a movie such as this, suspension of disbelief definitely helps with the enjoyment level.

For a while, I thought the identity of murderer was going to be either a disappointment or far too obvious, simply because not too many characters are introduced into the story; an unwritten rule of crime movies is that no one is introduced into a plot without reason. My fears were groundless; the ending works brilliantly, and is far more satisfying than is often the case.

Although "The Raven" has similarities to "Seven", it doesn't have the darkness or the hide-behind-your-finger's tension of that masterpiece of horror. With that said however, as serial killer movies go, "The Raven" is definitely a 'cut' above the average.

I really wanted to like this film, I really did. Something was off, though. Was it the script? Perhaps, although I can't find a clear fault in it. Some of the sophistication of the crimes and of the investigative methods were clearly out of the era, but overall it was OK. The production values were good, the direction was good, the acting was good. The atmosphere was dark and claustrophobic as in Poe's writing. Yet, I didn't quite find the enjoyment I was looking for.

The only thing I can think off was John Cusack. He and Alice Eve had no chemistry (and how can you not have it with Alice Eve?!) and the thing I had most trouble believing were not the way the criminal always barely escapes, not the story or the era or the feel of the movie, but that Cusack's character had any feelings at all. He seemed apathetic and occasionally angry. That was it. And that made the film, a good film overall, not be better than average.

I have a great appreciation of Poe, and I have a great appreciation of Cusack. What the he__ went wrong with this movie? From the very first statement that showed on the screen that he was found dead on park bench, I thought, "What???" Poe was found face down in a gutter in front of Ryan's Saloon and died three days later of what was suspected of alcoholism, with a remote possibility of complications of diabetes, or even rabies, however, shortly before his death, it was reported that he was behaving in a manner consistent with mild epilepsy, or of his bipolar disorder. OK, Oh well, it's Hollywood, right?? From the get-go, the acting was so over the top, and made Cusack appear to be an unseasoned newbie, however, Luke Evans shined in his role. The script appeared to be written rapidly and without care.

It said it was a horror movie, however, it is actually a murder mystery, and not a very good one. Agatha Christie would've definitely thrown this one out. If the author makes the suspect way too un-obvious, then what is the fun it in?? This could have been done so far better then what the final product actually was. Unfortunately, it was a large disappointment. Better luck next time.

I was not sure what to expect from this film, but seeing as how I could borrow it for free I would watch it. Turns out it was a really good movie as it featured a fine performance from John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, a nice kill here and there and a nice mystery to try and unravel. I am surprised that it did not perform better at the theaters as it was a nice change of pace from all the comic book films I usually watch.

The story has Edgar returning to Baltimore at a time a gruesome murder is taking place. One that seems to be a copy of his work "Murders in the Rue Morgue". Other heinous crimes occur, all seeming to be based off Poe's work. Poe becomes the prime suspect, but the investigator on the case soon realizes it is not the troubled author so he soon enlists Poe's help to try and find the person responsible. Unfortunately for Poe, this killer soon brings Poe in directly by kidnapping Poe's beloved and challenges Poe to find her before she dies.

I liked the cat and mouse of the game as the investigator and Poe try to solve the killer's bizarre and twisted clues to learn his identity before it is too late. I was not sure what to expect from the film, but it turned out to be a very dark and a bit of a sad film. John Cusack did great as Poe, but all of the cast did a fine job. They also did a nice job of recreating Baltimore in the time period this film takes place. I am sure if I really looked I could find a mistake or two, but I never really try to look for anachronisms when watching a movie unless it is like totally obvious or the movie is not good.

So all in all a good mystery type movie with some horror elements in it. The best death was a bit early in the film, it being the one that copied the Poe story "The Pit and the Pendulum". None of the other deaths were quite as graphic as it. However, the film's story was good enough that I did not need to see a bunch of over the top brutality.