"The Raven" Takes a Nose Dive

http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/movies/the-raven-with-john-cusack-directed-by-james-mcteigue.html?ref=movies

A.O. Scott's article "A Murderer Tapping at His Chamber Door" does an excellent job summing up what director, James McTeigue's, new movie, The Raven is: a jumbled mess. Predictable? Yes. But I was interested to see what critics had to say about the movie. "The fannish obsessiveness that animates 'The Raven' is its most appealing attribute, and even Poe scholars can forgive it for discarding the biographical record in favor of playful, gruesome fantasy." Scott writes. The director takes all of Edgar Allan Poe's pieces of literature and tries to incorporate them into one movie. It does not work in McTeigue's favor due to the fact that he tries to focus on too many of Poe's literary accomplishments and leaves the viewer wondering why they are learning about all these unnecessary titles and allusions. Not only is the movie's plot unclear but the acting is sub par. John Cusak is not a bad actor. Unfortunately though, he's been placed in a film that he cannot save on his raw talent alone. Scott describes the quality of the performances as either be "over acted" or not on point. Both are extremes that a viewer would notice if the plot is less than entertaining. Another poor quality is the fact that the history of Poe's life is incorrect. For viewer's who don't know much about Poe, there won't be a problem but for those who do, they will find themselves griping endlessly about the misrepresentation of Poe's last days. Scott seems to take pleasure in reading Poe's work and from this article it appears that he is far from impressed with McTeigue's interpretation.

If any popular newspaper company is going to review a movie, it's going to have to be the New York Times. People, like myself, trust the knowledge of their critics because they know what works and doesn't. One of the reasons why I chose this article was to see if this movie was actually good. From the trailers on TV, I could tell it wasn't. A.O. Scott wrote down everything I was thinking though, when I viewed these advertisements for The Raven: boring, unrealistic and unoriginal. The article was entertaining to read because Scott had to find some humor in the worst parts of the movie. After all, a critic can't see a wonderful, action packed movie every time. They have to see some bad films too. To understand what Scott was talking about, I had to research some of this information about Poe to see how many books and essays he had written. He has written many and to know that a director would try to use all of them in one movie makes me cringe. Due to the diction in Scott's article, I could tell he was doing the same thing, sitting through the movie. I like writers like Scott because they give me what I'm looking for: an honest opinion. And because of him, I can save myself $10 and an hour and forty three minutes of sheer boredom.