7/10
The film aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes, currently scores The Raven at 26% based on various 'critic' scores. I like Rotten Tomatoes and normally think that the scores are pretty accurate, but I think they've got this one wrong.
If you, like the critics, want an insight into the life, times and literarary works of Edgar Allen Poe, then you might be dissapointed. If you want a solid, creepy, sometimes gory, gothic, cop-chase-serial killer movie, then you'll find plenty to enjoy.
John Cusack plays Poe, during the last week of his life in 1840's Baltimore. This is a good role for Cusack and it's good to see him play a 'showy' role, rather than his usual 'cool/calm' character roles.
Poe is struggling to make a living as a writer and is filling his spare time by drinking. He's got no money and is desperate for his newspaper to publish some of his latest works - but the editor is not convinced it's what his readers want. They want 'blood and gore' like his earlier works...
Meanwhile, some murders start happening that take cues from some of Poe's stories (there's one particularly grisly death in true pit and pendulum style). Poe is, of course, implicated and is interviewed by the local Detective Emmett Fields, played excellently by Brit-actor Luke Evans. Fields and Poe work togther to unravel the clues left on each murder victim to ultimately, catch the killer and save the life of Poe's kidnapped girlfriend.
The film is a little unevenly directed by James McTeigue, but the story is well told, both in script and visual terms. The denoument is quite nicely set-up and filmed, with logic behind both the finding of the killer and the motives behind it.
All-in-all, it's a solid and entertaining affair.
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