The problem is that "The Raven" is all surface. The movie is nothing but its fun idea, without much development or ingenuity

| Feb 12, 2013

But on the whole, Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare's never finds solid footing, and although the early murders are inventively intriguing, as the film goes on they slowly but surely lose their power to startle, amaze and perplex.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 15, 2012

The maniac on the loose i less Jack the Ripper than a literarily inclined nobody, and not even a butler, to boot.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | May 4, 2012

Basically a well-researched but formulaic mystery centered on one of those nyah-nyah serial killers we've seen a thousand times.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 28, 2012

The whole thing has the feel of a second-rate living-history exhibit.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 28, 2012

Never commits to the kind of full-bore lunacy that might have made the film a campy pleasure.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 27, 2012

The subject matter screams out for cleverness and depth, the sort of mind-bending twists and satisfying darkness that Poe himself would love. It finds them only in small doses.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 27, 2012

...the dark-hued film is so grisly and unpleasant that when the mystery is finally solved, the only satisfaction derives from knowing that it's over.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2012

Taking the two hours of your life that it would take to see The Raven and reading anything by the man who inspired it would be a smarter use of your time. And you'd be less likely to fall asleep.

| Original Score: 1.0/5.0 | Apr 27, 2012

Until The Raven almost literally loses itself during a chase in the city sewers, it nicely balances its literary gamesmanship with a R-rated thriller's mandatory gross-out tableaux.

| Apr 27, 2012

It's neither grand nor grisly enough to seriously satisfy Poe-ish cravings for murder, mystery and literary allusions.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 27, 2012

The pervasive gore overpowers the few clumsy attempts at wit here...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 27, 2012

It's good pulpy fun, with eye catching period trimmings, and Hungarian locations standing in ably for 19th century Maryland.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 27, 2012

We immediately understand why Cusack is not known for playing men who lived before 1984.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 27, 2012

The story has its moments, and yet there is something about this tale of a serial killer's patterning his crimes on Poe's most gruesome works that doesn't completely satisfy.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 26, 2012

Edgar Allan Poe invented the detective story, so turning him into the heroic sleuth of a mystery thriller makes perfect sense.

| Apr 26, 2012

Mr. Cusack works himself into a lather trying to reconcile the contradictory parts of an incoherent character. In, I am sorry to say, an incoherent movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 26, 2012

A serial killer/Gothic drama/love story hybrid, it has some nicely mounted atmospheric scenes and strong acting from John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 26, 2012

While full of welcome gore and blood spatter, it's bankrupt of any creative spark.

| Original Score: 0/4 | Apr 26, 2012

If Edgar Allen Poe were alive today, working as a Hollywood screenwriter (God forbid), I suspect he'd be penning not the abysmal script for The Raven but something called The Fall of the House of Cusack.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 26, 2012