L'ombre du mal

I am a big fan in general of "WhoDunnit" movies, and I was keen to see what 'The Raven' had in store. I went in assuming that it would be like any other 'Jack the Ripper'/19th century killer movie and that it would predictable. I was right in my assessment, but inspite of these cliché's the Raven was a brilliant film mainly because of the following:

• The movie was beautifully shot. It has a very 'sleepy hollow' feeling throughout. - The use of Poe's work and the poetic climax was excellent. I enjoyed this bit a lot as it left me with things to think about after watching the film, something which is testimony to the fact that the film made an impact. - Great character development of John Cusack/Poe. Made for a dark, mysterious man with a twisted view of the world. Exciting. - There were many tense moments, great chases and small pieces of puzzle solving( like in console games) making for small mysteries within one large mystery, thus keeping you engrossed all the way.

To summarise, the Raven was riotous ride through Victorian era type settings, keeps you on the egde of your seat, the mini puzzles keep you busy and the plot and character development( Poe) was excellent, Definitely worth a watch and an 8 out of ten for me.

P.S. The film has gore so if you can't stand that, don't watch it. It's not a Hostel or a SAW, but there is gore and blood.

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.

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.

A killer is on the loose, a young detective joins forces with Edgar Allan Poe to stop his writings becoming reality. The stakes become high when Poe's partner is kidnapped and her life hangs in the balance.

Set in Baltimore, an underrated thriller mystery that needn't be compared to other period pieces including the likes of Sherlock Holmes (2009). This has its own legs and is more of a murder thriller than adventure. James McTeigue captures the ominous 1849 setting with dark and foggy cobbled streets reminiscent in tone of a Hammer films and Jack the Ripper tale - In Hell (2001). The setting and locations create a eerie backdrop, complimentary of Danny Ruhlmann's cinematography. There's no doubt, Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare's screenplay unfolds like a period piece CBS CSI special but it's a well filmed, entertaining and intriguing, strengthened by McTeigue's direction and Lucas Vidal's score.

Brendan Gleeson's acting abilities are very much underused as Captain Hamilton has he has very little screen time. Luke Evans' Detective Fields commands an on screen presence equal to that of the late Heath ledger. John Cusack gives his usual solid show, albeit he is more animated than usual as Edgar Allan Poe. Alice Eve is excellent, giving a convincing harrowing performance as the kidnapped and trapped Emily Hamilton.

Anyone familiar with the genre may see the killers identity well in advance. Nevertheless, The Raven is a creepy, solid old-school thriller with a fitting portrayal by Cusack.

Well, not much to say about this movie really. It's not bad but it's definitely nothing memorable or impressive to watch either. It's all being good and entertaining enough to keep watching but by the end of it you won't feel like you got an awful lot out of the movie.

I think that the biggest problem of the movie is that it's being a very straightforward mystery/thriller, which at the same time also makes it a very standard and formulaic one. Normally I would complain when a movie has too many distractions in it but in this case it most likely wouldn't had harmed this movie. Some more character, or some more different story lines would had perhaps made this movie a more interesting one.

The movie now becomes a bit tiresome after a while. There is not enough variation and the movie just never really manages to become a tense one, with any of its mystery or thriller elements. Who knows, maybe it also was the movie its low budget that prevented it from ever making a real impact and the reason why the movie seems to be lacking the right required type of atmosphere.

A problem of the movie also lies with its main character. No, I'm not saying that John Cusack is a poor actor in this movie but his character simply isn't being a good or interesting enough. There was so much they could had done, after all he plays Edgar Allan Poe in this movie but it feels as if the film-makers were holding back with just about everything and decided to play things safe, making this a very standard and therefore also predictable little movie.

No it's not a horrible movie to watch but just a movie that offers far too little to its viewers.

6/10

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