The Raven. No, it's not a bird. It's not a plane. It's a suspenseful murder mystery; and, a pretty good one at that! It borrows from the life of one of the 19th century's most famous authors. The Raven plays off of the mystery of his real life to create a piece of fiction that is interesting to follow and all-in-all, a pretty good watch.
It's 1849. Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusak), the famous author and poet, is, well...just Edgar Allan Poe. He's yet to achieve fame and is seemingly as well known for his impoverished, drunken violence as he is for his writings. Then, tragedy strikes. It doesn't strike him, per se; rather, it strikes in the form of three murders. These murders do, however, impact him; if not directly implicate him. You see, the murders are committed, to the letter, in the same fashion described in his books. This makes Poe a subject for Detective Fields (Luke Evans) to get to know. Soon, it's discovered that these murders are being committed by someone who, at the very least, is trying to communicate with Poe and at the most is trying to drive him to further madness. This becomes abundantly clear when the killer targets Poe's beloved, Emily (Alice Eve), kidnapping her and leaving our heroes to save the day before precious time wears thin. Yadayadayada Poe and Fields team up to find Emily and end the threat of a ravenous killer.
It's pretty good. I'll go with 3.0 Stars. What really legitimizes this story, is the mysterious life of Poe, himself. While there was certainly no serial killer linked to his bio, Poe's own life left much mystery which truly fits like a keen puzzle piece into this fictional narrative. Overall, it's a good story that moves well. It certainly has plenty of grotesque violent moments and images. While I'm not a big fan of those, they were necessary to the plot and easily identified so that I could stare longingly into my popcorn bag to avoid them.
James McTeigue was able to capture the setting of the mid-nineteenth century quite nicely, in the form of the setting and dress. The dialogue, well...not so much. He seemed to fast forward a century on that one, which served to discredit the whole feel somewhat. Yeah, it looked 1849--in terms of setting and wardrobe, but it didn't often sound 1849 in terms of character dialogue.
That aside, it is a good story with characters that are relatively easy to connect with on a few levels. The plot unfolds in an interesting way, but left me wanting a little more for the 'killer' side of the ledger. These are flicks that, once the bad guy is revealed, you just want to hate him/her with an intense passion. You want to know why he would commit such horrific acts. You want to see some remote tidbit of justification for his evil. This particular killer's 'why' was a little lacking for me. Yeah--you still want justice to run its course, but this villain isn't one that you're really going to love to hate.
Overall, The Raven is worth a watch. It's probably not a BIG screen view, unless you're a fan of Cusak, Poe, or just need a pretty good suspense/mystery story. Do rent it, however, when it comes out on BluRay in August. It's certainly worth a late-night viewing.
True...OUT!
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