The Raven

The movie opens with text stating when Edgar Allan Poe (EAP) died and that the last few days of his life were a mystery.  That is true.  The movie is going to fill in this gap.  The big problem is that there is no gap whatsoever.  Poe finds himself working hand in glove with Detective Fields of the Baltimore Police Department.  Moreover, he is forced by the serial killer to write a new horror story based on the killer's crimes and have it published in the daily paper.  Thus, there is virtual nothing that happens in which there isn't vast documentary evidence as to what Poe was doing.  And it isn't even as if the police kept his involvement secret.  The final chapter of his daily concludes with Poe offering his life for that of Emily's.

As far as the story, the villain is superhuman and/or beyond brilliant.  His plan is ludicrous and yet it works.  One wonders how he managed to afford all the equipment for the elaborate murders once he is revealed.  How did he snatch a woman from a masked ball that was crowded with police?  Why was he on the church roof so he could jump down on the unsuspecting officer?  Why was he there at all when the sole point was to find an empty grave with a threatening headstone?  On several occasions, he is known to be in a building that is surrounded by police but he escapes each time.

To my knowledge, EAP never had a goatee but John Cusack sports one.  Though Poe did serve in the army and later was kicked out of West Point, he didn't admit to it in his later years.  Instead he had a tale of going to France.  Thus, if this was going to be revealed, it should have been done by another character - perhaps the detective who initially suspected Poe - so as to be true to the man.  Among his accolades, Poe is credited as the Father of the Detective Story with his character Auguste Dupin.  However, Poe proves entirely inferior to the villain since every deduction he makes only leads him where the villain intends him to go.  Basically, Poe is portrayed as a has-been writer who is a complete jerk, a drunkard, and generally anti-social.  Though I like Cusack, he missed the mark here.

 

Detective Fields (Luke Evans) plays Watson to Cusack's Holmes.  For a detective, he proves to be not particularly good at detecting.  Nor is he a particularly good shot, having had several opportunities at the villain who always escaped unscathed.

 

Edgar Allan Poe would not look kindly on this.  I suspect his critique would be less kind than mine and filled with vitriol and contempt.  Obviously, his review would have been much better than this and more fun to read too.