The Raven (2012)
Starring John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans, and Brendan Gleeson
Directed by James McTeigue
I have to be perfectly blunt -- The Raven never once captured my attention, so as I watched this thing, I found myself fading in and out of cognizance. Oddly enough, I didn't even have my computer to detract my attention. No, instead, I'd find my eyes wandering over to the ornaments on the Christmas tree or to figuring out why the Playstation controller wouldn't charge when plugged in to the system. I don't think it's that The Raven is horrendously awful or poorly directed or horribly acted, but something just didn't click for me with this period piece that creates a murder mystery in the days immediately prior to writer Edgar Allen Poe's death.
Admittedly, I think part of the problem is that I'm not exactly the biggest John Cusack fan and placing him in a period piece as the famous horror author didn't sit well with me from the get-go. He doesn't exude 19th century anything, so I couldn't really buy him as the gothic writer. It doesn't help that Poe is being set up in an off-putting modern-in-tone way by some madman who is using Poe's writings as a means of creating "copycat" murders throughout the town of Baltimore. Maybe something like this would've been possible in 1849, but I found the whole thing incredibly unbelievable. There was never any sense of tension derived at all. [So maybe it was poorly directed and horribly acted after all.]
Once again, the grade below is possibly unfair and unjust, but the plain fact is that I tried to give this one a shot and since I made it all the way through, I feel that the thing's gotta be graded. Maybe you'll love it (and it wasn't the worst thing I've seen this year), but this one didn't work for me.
The RyMickey Rating: D
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