Review of The Raven (2012) by Jesse O — 22 Aug 2013

This was such a convoluted movie. A convoluted movie that I really wanted to like, but its plot contrivances are simply too much for one to really enjoy the movie. I thought there was something here with John Cusack being a narcissistic, antagonizing drunkard and insulting everyone.

But, quickly, they remove this from the equation to thrust him into the series of murders inspired by his works. There's just no real inspiration to the storytelling and it's like no real effort is made into making sure that it makes SOME sort of sense.

Of course, they're also going for a stylish, gothic look more than actually telling an intelligent or gripping story. I mean I suppose tying the murders to Poe's stories makes it more interesting to some, but all it does is make you want to read the original stories more than it gets you invested in the story this movie is trying to tell.

The movie is, at least, nice to look at and that, probably, more than anything else makes the movie FEEL better than it actually is. That visual polish simply isn't enough for me though. The thing about this movie is that, even with its silly contrivances, it is a movie that is easy to get into.

I can see many more people enjoying this film much more than I did, and that's completely fine. I just felt that the story was WAY too generic and predictable for it to be any good. It is slightly below average, so you could do much worse than this film.