REVIEW OF: "The Raven"
PLOT: A reimagining of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life in which a serial killer/stalker is reenacting various elements from several of his grisly tales in an attempt to challenge the poet to a battle of wits.
Starring: John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans
THE GOOD: ...is simply that it "wasn't bad". Don't get me wrong, it wasn't good either, but it just has too many elements that were done with such mediocrity that it actually blended into a bowl of believable and somewhat satisfying intellectual distractions. And, to be fair, how would YOU have done a reimagining of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life?? Actually, if you had any sense, you wouldn't, because...
THE BAD: Sadly, there were quite a few bad things about this film. The acting is done in such a way as to make me believe the director was tight on time and took too many "good enough" takes. The plot as a whole is hardly believable and the villain is too dramatic to incorporate into a "real life reimagining mystery film. Worst of all though, the editing is truly shit. There are scenes with no segue, whatsoever. Some people may think this is a minor gripe, but the truth is that truly GREAT films are primarily great because of how fantastically they are edited. Think of some of the most emotional moments in the history of film and I guarantee you will find several elements that could have been destroyed by something as simple as bad editing.
THE UNFORTUNATE: The most unfortunate aspect of this film is that it had plenty of potential, if it had only taken a more serious route on its journey. If this were 1997 and it had been directed by, say, David Fincher and been called Se7en, this review would've gone quite differently. Seriously though, I see no reason the film had to take such a "Burton-esque" style of direction and action and acting. Edgar Allan Poe was a real man with real problems that REALLY died a mysterious death, and there's no reason his story had to be "Sleepy Hollow 2: Electric Boogaloo".
Starring: John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans
THE GOOD: ...is simply that it "wasn't bad". Don't get me wrong, it wasn't good either, but it just has too many elements that were done with such mediocrity that it actually blended into a bowl of believable and somewhat satisfying intellectual distractions. And, to be fair, how would YOU have done a reimagining of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life?? Actually, if you had any sense, you wouldn't, because...
THE BAD: Sadly, there were quite a few bad things about this film. The acting is done in such a way as to make me believe the director was tight on time and took too many "good enough" takes. The plot as a whole is hardly believable and the villain is too dramatic to incorporate into a "real life reimagining mystery film. Worst of all though, the editing is truly shit. There are scenes with no segue, whatsoever. Some people may think this is a minor gripe, but the truth is that truly GREAT films are primarily great because of how fantastically they are edited. Think of some of the most emotional moments in the history of film and I guarantee you will find several elements that could have been destroyed by something as simple as bad editing.
THE UNFORTUNATE: The most unfortunate aspect of this film is that it had plenty of potential, if it had only taken a more serious route on its journey. If this were 1997 and it had been directed by, say, David Fincher and been called Se7en, this review would've gone quite differently. Seriously though, I see no reason the film had to take such a "Burton-esque" style of direction and action and acting. Edgar Allan Poe was a real man with real problems that REALLY died a mysterious death, and there's no reason his story had to be "Sleepy Hollow 2: Electric Boogaloo".
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