“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary…” …I decided to download and watch the movie about Edgar Allan Poe. “The Raven” is starring John Cusack as the famous poet in a chilling thriller about a serial killer, who copies Poe’s worst nightmares in his killings.

Why not Johnny Depp? The question seems logical, considering The Raven is very similar, to former Depp’s movies, especially Sleepy Hollow and From Hell. We have also an ounce of Sherlock Holmes here, mix in a little melodrama and you have essentially what The Raven is about.

A real copy-cat

The best original idea about the Raven is Edgar Allan Poe himself, as the main character of the movie. Cusack’s Poe, while not especially memorable, gets the job done. Of course Cusack plays safe, and instead of too much dwelling into how he should play Poe, he plays rather himself as almost always, with a little Robert Downy Jr. added in. Hid Poe is not necessarily bad, but not really memorable either.

The same goes for the story: with little surprise we learn, that the serial killer mimics Poe’s poems with all the gruesome murders and deaths which were depicted in them. The dashing young inspector, Fields teams up with Poe, and they both tries to solve the case, while he clock is ticking….

“And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting…”

The main real problem with the Raven is that it follows so much other serial killer’s movie’s plot, that we know already in advance what will happen next. Women killed one after another in a grisly fashion? Check. Hero’s loved ones involved in the murders?

Check. Dashing young inspector giving a fierce chase to the actual murderer? Check. Besides Poe himself, there isn’t an ounce of originality in the movie. The Raven isn’t a bad movie, but it’s so predictable, that you have can almost always tell, what will happen next, without too much work out your brain.

“But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling”

The Raven is still an enjoyable movie, just don’t expect too much from it. The era represented is less present, than in other movies of this genre, the movie rather concentrates on the main story.

-BadSector-