The Raven

In 1849, Edgar Allan Poe died of mysterious causes.  The imagination soars with possibilities as to the demise of one of the most influential American writers in history, especially one so drawn to the macabre and mystery.  What dark story surrounds his death?  Why did he cry the name Reynolds from his deathbed?  These mysteries have naturally fueled a movie offering a grand theory to Poe’s last days, a dark, bloody murder mystery that pits Poe against his greatest fan, and his greatest enemy.

Movies depicting a grandiose assumption about a mysterious historical character are not rare.  From Hell was a captivating and chilling retelling of Jack the Ripper’s rule of terror over London, which depicted a government cover-up involving the slaughtering of hookers.  Anonymous was a story about Shakespeare being a facade for a ghost writer who couldn’t be in the spotlight.  These movies were good (well, Anonymous moderately so) because they had heart and an interesting story to tell, while The Raven just felt contrived.  The whole plot was perfunctory and the second act was needlessly drawn out, with each clue basically having the same message without adding anything to the story.  The best way I can describe this is with Mario.  Mario goes to these castles because he is told Princess Peach is there, but in every castle he’s told that she’s in the next castle.  This works in videogame form because there are new challenges for the gamer to overcome, but without this tension in a movie we start to get bored.

Not to say they didn’t attempt to add the tension and suspense, their attempts just didn’t work well. 

SPOILERS

One of the clues leads Poe and the police to a church.  Due to the lack of building suspense in the mystery, the writers feel the need to add an action beat into the story to keep everything rolling along.  Now, the clue is a sham.  The killer/kidnapper has said Emily will be at this church, but she isn’t, what the police find is just an empty grave with a wooden cross bearing Emily’s name.  As the police are searching around the building the killer is found on top of a low roof and he slits a police officer’s throat and shoots another before riding off making Poe take chase with his horse.  My problem with this logic lies in the killer’s intentions.  This killer had an end game.  He wanted to break Poe down and force him to drink poison so when he finds Emily he will die shortly anyway (why? I don’t know.  He’s a douche).  If the killer had this end game in mind, why would he allow himself to get caught at the church?  You can’t make the claim that he was interrupted because the false grave was in perfect condition, plus this killer planned this whole scheme out.  Why would you wait until the last minute to set up this grave?  Unless he’s really bad at planning in which case the whole scheme would’ve fallen through anyway.  See, the logic falls apart.  It’s maddening.

SPOILERS OVER

What bothers me the most is the premise is fantastic.  Who wouldn’t want to hear a story about Edgar Allan freaking Poe solving a murder mystery during his last days?  That’s genius.  Unfortunately, the story wasn’t handled correctly.  The characters weren’t strong, the mystery was weak, and the whole story felt robotic.  It’s sad when a movie with such potential turns out so lackluster.  The creators never meant for a lackluster tale.  Those writers worked for weeks, maybe a year, putting this story together (I’m not sure on the exact timing because I don’t know how this project was started), the director spent months story boarding and planning, crews spent weeks building the sets, the actors spent countless hours developing their characters and practicing their lines all for a lackluster performance.  It’s sad, but I respect the artists that created this movie and hope they do a better job next time.  As for this flick, I hate to say it, but I will probably watch it nevermore.