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The macabre and lurid tales 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 h... read more read more...orrific 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. Intrepid Pictures' The Raven also stars Brendan Gleeson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. -- (C) Relativity

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R, 1 hr. 50 min.

Directed by: James McTeigue

Release Date: April 27, 2012

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Flixster Reviews (1,267)

  • fb100000040220993
    May 4, 2012
    fb100000040220993
    Being a big fan of Edgar Allen Poe's material, I actually thought that "The Raven" had the potential to deliver strong entertainment value. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The movie fails as an accurate biographical portrayal of the writer, as much as it squanders the opportunity t... read moreo bring his macabre tales to life. The writers labored to force as many of Poe's masterpieces into their tired murder mystery as possible. References to "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Pit and the Pendulum" and others, lack any insight into the actual stories at all. The uninspired scenes come and go, which is unforgivable, considering they were the studio's main selling point. The writers didn't stop at reducing the man's work. Edgar Allen Poe is fictionalized as a bumbling sleuth, that would have been a perfect fit in a rotation of lame 1970's prime time detective features. Any lazy reference to Poe's actual life or puzzling death, could have been easily lifted from an article on Wikipedia. The underrated John Cusack does what he can, but this effort was doomed from the opening credits, until it's ridiculous payoff. A competent filmmaker, could generate great cinema out of Poe's stories. Until that actually happens, "The Raven" will be there to piss on a towering legacy.
  • DrZeek
    April 28, 2012
    DrZeek
    Det. Fields: Are there any other stories in the collection?
    Edgar Allan Poe: Many.
    Det. Fields: Specifically about murder?
    Edgar Allan Poe: I'm afraid so.

    Here is an example of a film that I wish was sillier. As it stands, The Raven is a slickly made thriller ab... read moreout a serial killer who goes to implausibly complex extents to recreate scenes from the more gruesome works of Edgar Allan Poe, but it suffers due to it not being much fun to watch. The film could have gone two ways to help itself out. The Raven could have gone a very serious route and played out like a 19th century Se7en. Or, the film could have added a layer of camp or more dark humor and turned out to be something like Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. Unfortunately, The Raven falls somewhere in the middle; with John Cusack being the only thing to help it along, aside from some neat production aspects. The story never becomes more than bland; the other characters are equally uninteresting, and the results are fairly lackluster. What starts out as a neat idea is ultimately unfulfilling.

    read the whole review at thecodeiszeek.com
  • mrbungle7821
    April 27, 2012
    mrbungle7821
    When "The Raven" was released in 1845, it was a literary sensation. I can't say that the 2012 movie of the same name will be met with anywhere near the devoted fanfare. Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) has become embroiled in a deadly criminal investigation. The famous author is pen... read moreniless, drunk, and depressed, but what else is new? What is new is that some Poe admirer has been stalking Baltimore and killing people in grisly styles fashioned after Poe's macabre stories and poems. Detective Fields (Luke Evans) recognizes the connection to Poe and enlists the author to aid in capturing the murderer. Poe's upper-class love, Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve), is captured by the unknown madman and buried alive. Poe must race against time to stop a killer, rescue the girl, and write a new horror-themed story to be published via the killer's demands.

    The Raven feels like an ill fit from the start. What is the point of featuring an American literary icon when all you're going to do is plop the man into a pretty rote police procedural/serial killer thriller? The deadly flaw of The Raven isn't its concept; it's that the finished product didn't embrace the particulars of its literary mash-up enough. Is it really a good use of Poe to just have him tag along on a police investigation? I wanted this premise to crackle with a devious slyness, a cleverness of genre and concept that the movie seems incapable of producing. You're taking America's singular literary voice of the Gothic and macabre and putting him into a game with a deranged fan. That's a great start. I'm interested in that movie. But there needs to be some follow-through. This should be a battle of wits, an opportunity for Poe to backslide into the murky chasm of his own creations, bearing some pinning of guilt at having birthed a mad killer with the power of his words and imagination. This should be a psychological descent into hell for a man already famously tortured. Instead, the movie just becomes another rote serial killer movie but somebody typed in the name "Poe." The various corpses, inspired by Poe's works, just end up being gory, easily telegraphed deposits for clues. We don't see these people in peril, terrified by the fiendish ye olde Saw-like death traps. We don't even understand the process of the killer. The movie just ends up becoming one long, tiresome chase from dead body to next dead body, with Poe literary association haphazardly ladled in to tie stuff together. After a while, it feels like somebody took a thoroughly uninspiring serial killer script and just transported it into mid 19th century America. It's nice to know that some clichés are timeless.

    The movie never feels like it works properly, and the potential of its premise is completely unrealized. The murder mystery isn't really ever given suitable footing to be a mystery, except in that tried-and-true "who's going to be the bad guy" reveal. There aren't really any clues left behind. So when characters suddenly come up with epiphanies on their murder investigation, you wish they would at least show their work. For a movie written by screenwriters with names like Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare, The Raven certainly isn't smart. The Poe stories feel tacked on in an arbitrary fashion instead of being interwoven into foundational elements of the story. Who cares how the characters die if their deaths have no impact on Poe or anyone else? The "how" of the equation becomes inconsequential. The title poem doesn't even bear any weight on the story. The love interest/damsel in distress character is so bland and underwritten, that it's hard to really feel Poe's gnawing sense of urgency. Sidling the gloomy Gus Poe with a puppy-dog love story seems like a poor misunderstanding of the man and his demons. To top it off, the girl isn't even his cousin (surely the oddest criticism of mine thrown at a movie)!

    The movie doesn't really ever become a convincing thriller either. The pulpier elements are ignored or downplayed, played with stodgy seriousness for a movie this ridiculous (Saw-style death traps in 1849?). Director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), who after this and 2009's Ninja Assassin is starting to look like a one-hit wonder, badly misplays the action elements. The dingy cinematography is unnaturally dark, making it exceedingly difficult to understand certain sequences and giving the audience yet another reason to lose interest. The impressive production design is totally mitigated when there's not enough light to even see it. I understand given the nature of the story that we'd be dealing with lot of shadows and darkness, but this is just one poor looking movie. The only way you'd feel excitement from this movie is if in a fit of amnesia you forgot what you were watching and suddenly thought it might be a different, better movie, only to be disappointed ten minutes later when that sinking feeling reemerges and you realize, no, I am still watching The Raven.

    I love me some John Cusack (Hot Tub Time Machine), but this guy is just the wrong fit for the movie. His sensibilities never really gel with the character, so Poe's sense of melancholy comes across as more haughty boredom. He is not the right fit for the material. Eve (She's Out of my League) has got nothing to do but look pretty and scream occasionally. The worst crime of all is utterly wasting one of my favorite contemporary character actors, the phenomenally great Brendan Gleeson (The Guard). He plays the uptight father of Poe's love interest, which means he gets to pop onscreen and glare at Poe while looking worried. It's a criminal waste of this man's considerable talents.

    I think the best part of The Raven is actually it's mostly unseen killer. It's not because the guy is particularly clever or interesting or even remotely memorable (when they reveal who it is, make sure to pay attention to the constant reiteration of who he is, because if you're like me, you plum forgot). The reason this guy is good is because of his impetus. He's ultimately terrorizing Poe so that he can force the author to create more stories. Call it an extreme case of motivation. I can see our studious killer justifying his bad behavior, claiming to give the world new gifts of literary brilliance that we can all share, stories that will last the test of time. Isn't that worth a few dead bodies, he'd argue. Ultimately, this rationale becomes more egotistical, about flattering the killer and his devious appetites, which is a shame. I'd prefer if the bad guy were more devoted to the cause of helping to shape the Canon of transcendental literature. I almost wish that the movie were told from this skewed perspective. I could have dealt with an entire catalogue of famous authors being victimized under the auspices of producing great literature. What if this one sick person is responsible for wresting the great works of the 19th century out of the authors' minds and onto the page? I think we all owe this terrible individual a debt of gratitude.

    I'm finding myself disliking The Raven the more thought I put into it, which, admittedly, my brain is actively fighting against. It does not want to spend more time processing this bore of a movie; a fun premise never fully realized, a conflict never truly developed, and characters that are the 19th century equivalent of the stock roles you'd find in any mechanical CSI/Law & Order TV episode. So in the interest of literary fairness, I've decided to channel the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe for the final word on The Raven:

    And The Raven, never flowing, still is going, still is going,
    On the pallid screen I silently stare at in unblinking bore,
    And its plot is not that smart, missing heart and clues to start,
    And it seems like the writers were tasked with an unfriendly chore,
    The movie does not work; it's dull and empty to its very core,
    And so I lastly ask does this movie properly entertain?
    Quoth The Raven - "nevermore."

    Nate's Grade: C
  • aquateen2
    April 2, 2012
    aquateen2
    [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img]

    I was very enthusiastic about seeing this film, partly because I enjoyed V for Vendetta (same director) and partly because I have read many of Poe's pieces of literature and i've thoroughly enjoyed many ... read moreof them, basically i'm a huge fan of Poe. However my expectations were not entirely met with this film, because it wasn't at all historically accurate and mostly resembles a Sherlock Holmes movie except with scenes stolen from Poe's books. However, The Raven doesn't deserve to be entirely panned. It's not in any subtextual way a good adaption of Poe's work and i'm certain he wouldn't have been the biggest fan of this movie but it's a mystery thriller with some decent plot twists and performances from John Cusack and Brendan Gleeson. So dont criticise it as an adaption when it's not even trying to be one. Judge it as a film. It was interesting enough and so as a result of this I never pondered weak and weary.
  • fb720603734
    May 24, 2012
    fb720603734
    True Confession: I didn't even make it halfway through this snoozefest before walking out (in a huff...I wish...actually quite respectfully). I didn't care that John Cusack was present for the Q&A, I was that bored. Despite a really great premise in which Edgar Allen Poe is cal... read moreled upon to help find a serial killer who uses Poe's tales as bloody inspiration, the results are stultifying.

    Cusack is game as Poe in his final days. He's a broke egomaniac prone to "Do you know who I am?" pronouncements in the local Baltimore bars. The grisly murder sequences, particularly a "Pit And The Pendulum" reenactment, wouldn't look out of place in a SAW or HOSTEL sequel, and the cinematography is inky dark and moody. The problem is that every scene went on far too long, bringing any dramatic momentum to a grinding halt. Sure, the screenwriters are partially to blame, but Director James McTeigue had similar pacing issues with V FOR VENDETTA, so I'm just gonna have to conclude that this is the guy who takes the MOVE out of MOVIES!

    My movie buddy, Rebekah, and I left to grab a bite nearby, and as we were returning to our car, we saw the movie was letting out. We stopped a couple who told us we didn't miss a thing. All we wanted to know was who did it. They spilled, we all collectively shrugged and then went our separate ways. I was happy that I knew the killer's identity without having to endure another painful minute. In Hollywood, that's called a great movie night.
  • moviewaffle
    March 11, 2012
    moviewaffle
    John Cusack does for Edgar Allen Poe what Robert Downey Jnr did for Sherlock Holmes, and if you think that's a good thing then please shut down your browser and never cast your eyes over this site again.
    Hollywood has recently caught on to the idea that if they exploit famous li... read moreterary characters they can save on paying for rights as it's all public domain material. Guy Ritchie has already desecrated the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burrough's "John Carter" is in theatres as I write and later this year we'll get "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". As usual Tinseltown is behind the game with this tactic, Hammer and AIP were doing this back in the fifties and sixties, the difference is they did it well, respecting the material whilst updating it for the audiences of the times. There are few classic literary adaptations that stand up to Hammer's "Curse Of Frankenstein" or AIP's Roger Corman directed Poe series.
    Here we get Cusack playing Poe in the final days of his life, the twist being a series of murders copied from the writer's own stories plaguing Baltimore. Sounds like a winner right? Well this isn't 1963 and this isn't a Hammer production. Now I'm not naive enough to think that Hammer made films out of any love of cinema, they were just out to make a quick buck. The difference between Hammer and the modern major studios is that they had a respect for their audience, something which Hollywood lost years ago.
    There are a lot of really talented people working in the American film industry but most of them are in the technical departments. I feel sorry for them because when it comes to the creative departments Hollywood has never had such a shallow talent pool. The editor of this is Niven Howie, he's been working consistently for the past twenty years, if he didn't know what he was doing this wouldn't be the case. The director is James McTeigue. He became a director by working as an Assistant Director for the Wachowski brothers. Need I say more? Thelma Schoonmaker couldn't make sense of the footage a hack like McTeigue would present her with. The editing here is nonsensical, scenes crash into one another so clumsily that by the time you realise it's a new scene we're already onto the next one. Is this the fault of Howie or McTeigue? I would bet my life on the latter.
    Cusack is a great comedy actor and that's nothing to be ashamed of, there aren't very many about anymore. As a dramatic actor he just doesn't cut it, no matter how hard he tries he's always John Cusack. Here he plays a character who was known for being abrasive and unlikable. I've no problem with a lead character being unlikable but when they are downright irritating, as is Cusack's Poe, it's hard to take. Add in the horribly pretentious dialogue and his rapid-fire delivery and it's one of the most grating performances of any year.
    It's an incredibly wordy script for what is essentially a horror flick and scenes drag on while at the same time confusing the audience with badly written nineteenth century pigeon English.
    There's so much that rubbed me the wrong way about this film; unintelligible direction, too much dialogue, bland and dimly lit cinematography, overly dramatic music, CGI blood, and a poor use of colour. Why do so many film-makers think people only wore dark clothing before the last century? Take a look at any pre-twentieth century paintings and you'll see clothes so colourful they would be considered loud at a pimp's convention. Dark clothing is a very recent trend and only came to prominence thanks to The Beatles. If you don't want to use colour then shoot in black and white!
    Not many film-makers would dare butcher Shakespeare but when it comes to writers like Poe and Conan Doyle, Hollywood treats them with the same respect it affords to cinemagoers, miniscule.
  • jeffboam
    May 18, 2012
    jeffboam
    More 'the pits' than pendulously entertaining, The Raven is horrifically miscalculated American Gothic. One of this reviewer's guiltiest pleasures is From Hell, the Hughes Brothers' flawed but stylish Jack the Ripper Who-Done-It based on an Alan Moore graphic novel. It's a great ... read moremurder mystery based on real events that colors outside of the lines with great style. The Raven, which shares From Hell's strikingly similar DNA, checks off these same boxes. Cursed with a wretchedly contrived script that never lives up to the premise's great potential, however, this Raven loony is just a Po-faced pot-boiler.

    In this R-rated 19th century-set crime thriller, writer Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) joins forces with a young Baltimore detective (Oliver Jackson Cohen) to hunt down a mad serial murderer basing his crimes around Poe's works.

    The opening shot shows a deathly ill Poe looking up at - dum, dum, dum - a raven. A victim shows up in a coffin that also encases - dum, dum, dum - a raven. The killer fires a shot at Poe and instead hits - dum, dum, dum - a raven. Laying it on thicker than Karo syrup, director James McTeigue answers the question of if he improved upon the promise he demonstrated with his decent debut, V for Vendetta: um, no. A ridiculous overly bloody display of style over substance, his heavy-handedness puts the final nail in the movie's coffin. Worse, Cusack, who's usually aces in everything from comedy to thrillers, gives a hammy performance more becoming of this week's other release, Dark Shadows.

    Bottom line: Watch The Raven nevermore.
  • burgerstar
    April 30, 2012
    burgerstar
    Pretty good. "From Hell" or "Sherlock Holmes" was better.
  • fb704730572
    April 28, 2012
    fb704730572
    The Raven works as a good sort of B thriller, in that it has some scary set pieces, a generally successful dark atmospheric tone, and some good work by John Cusack. What's disappointing is that it shouldn't be thought of as a B thriller, the film genuinely thinks it's an intellig... read moreent, gripping, and witty thriller, when it certainly is not. The plot is silly, the plot developments are often sillier, and the script has plenty of weak dialogue moments. It's stylized nature is reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, but without that film's lighter tone, charisma, and humor. In the end, The Raven is entertaining enough to sustain itself, but not at all memorable.

    3/5 Stars
  • gavinthelordofthefut1
    April 29, 2012
    gavinthelordofthefut1
    The title starts off with Edgar Allen Poe sitting on a park bench, but nobody knows what happened to him. Then, the story tells about his last few days as an alcoholic and penniless writer trying to solve a string of murders and a kidnapping that appears to be based on his work. ... read more

    Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I officially like this movie. It's not the greatest ever made, but it's still very entertaining and a pretty good adaptation of Poe and his last few days before his death. I enjoyed John Cusack's over-the-top performance as a drunken poet/writer and his dialog was perfect and I've never hated him throughout the film. The rest of the cast, including Luke Evans, gave some decent performances as well, thus making the other characters engaging.

    There's also some great and inventive murders that you probably find in either a Saw movie or a Final Destination movie, but the rest of them weren't shown to us and I don't have a problem with that. The story has it's moments, but some parts are quite predictable. Good thing it had a decent enough pace to help it move along. The Dialogue is a combination between flat and humorous that has some fun with Poe's character and his connection with the references to the murders and the stories that he had written were very impressive. The story had some great CGI ravens to it, but apparently, it just didn't justify the movie title.

    Overall, despite's it's predictable, yet very interesting story, The Raven is by no means an entertaining adaptation of Poe and his last few days as a poet/writer with a great cast, stunning visuals, a nice atmospheric soundtrack, some breathtaking action, and very creative bloody murders which makes it very worth-seeing to die-hard fans of Edgar Allen Poe.

    Go watch it if you have read the stories, but to those who haven't, however, would might as well read the stories before you might have the chance to see it.

    Rating: 7.3/10

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Critic Reviews

Rafer Guzman
April 28, 2012
Rafer Guzman, Newsday

Basically a well-researched but formulaic mystery centered on one of those nyah-nyah serial killers we've seen a thousand times. Full Review

Stephen Whitty
April 28, 2012
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

It lingers intolerably on some inessential scenes, rushes through others, and fails to provide any motivation either for Poe's devoted (albeit fictional) love, or the film's archvillain. Full Review

Eric D. Snider
April 27, 2012
Eric D. Snider, Film.com

Never commits to the kind of full-bore lunacy that might have made the film a campy pleasure. Full Review

John Wenzel
April 27, 2012
John Wenzel, Denver Post

The subject matter screams out for cleverness and depth, the sort of mind-bending twists and satisfying darkness that Poe himself would love. It finds them only in small doses. Full Review

Colin Covert
April 27, 2012
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Director James McTeigue has no feel for humor or terror, making what could have been a witty pastiche into another cheesy slice-and-dice horror flick. Full Review

Richard Roeper
April 27, 2012
Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com

It's 'Saw' meets 'Sherlock Holmes.' " Full Review

Richard Corliss
April 27, 2012
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

Until The Raven almost literally loses itself during a chase in the city sewers, it nicely balances its literary gamesmanship with a R-rated thriller's mandatory gross-out tableaux. Full Review

Betsy Sharkey
April 27, 2012
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

It's neither grand nor grisly enough to seriously satisfy Poe-ish cravings for murder, mystery and literary allusions. Full Review

Liam Lacey
April 27, 2012
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

The pervasive gore overpowers the few clumsy attempts at wit here... Full Review

Lou Lumenick
April 27, 2012
Lou Lumenick, New York Post

It's good pulpy fun, with eye catching period trimmings, and Hungarian locations standing in ably for 19th century Maryland. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Colonel Hamilton: If I can't pronounce it, I don't want to eat it.
    • Edgar Allan Poe: Somebody better call his Momma!
    • Edgar Allen Poe: Some say Lawyers make the best Profession. Here I am, an Actor, taking in millions for a bomb!
    • Edgar Allan Poe: No matter how this ends I will kill him.
    • Edgar Allan Poe: It seems my own writing has become the inspiration for an actual killer.
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