The Raven 2012

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: 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. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: It's just a bore; quoth the raven, "Go see something else." Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: 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. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: The director who stitched The Raven together has no idea how to frame or compose a scene, let alone 'grow' a film organically. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: 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. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: While I can't really defend this "Raven" as a good movie, I nonetheless enjoyed it... Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: The story gets increasingly conventional as it goes on, until Poe becomes just another action hero, following an increasingly illogical, National Treasure-esque set of clues through a series of confrontations. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A grimly preposterous serial-killer thriller set in 19th-century Baltimore, this riff on the final days of the author of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and other masterpieces of the macabre might qualify as literary desecration if it weren't so silly. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Edgar Allan Poe invented the detective story, so turning him into the heroic sleuth of a mystery thriller makes perfect sense. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Quoth the raven: "Eh." Read more

John Wenzel, Denver Post: 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. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Never commits to the kind of full-bore lunacy that might have made the film a campy pleasure. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: It's neither grand nor grisly enough to seriously satisfy Poe-ish cravings for murder, mystery and literary allusions. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: For a good hour or so, The Raven is gruesome, ludicrous fun. Then it's just ludicrous. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Basically a well-researched but formulaic mystery centered on one of those nyah-nyah serial killers we've seen a thousand times. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It lingers intolerably on some inessential scenes, rushes through others, and fails to provide any motivation either for Poe's devoted (albeit fictional) love, or the film's archvillain. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This wannabe Sherlockian thriller is like a night spent at Madame Tussauds, watching mannequins strangle other mannequins. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: It's good pulpy fun, with eye catching period trimmings, and Hungarian locations standing in ably for 19th century Maryland. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Raven looks great and is well-paced, but a lack of a compelling resolution makes it an anemic effort. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: It's 'Saw' meets 'Sherlock Holmes.' " Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "The Raven," a feverish costume thriller, attempts to explain Poe's death by cobbling together spare parts from thrillers about serial killers. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Director James McTeigue has no feel for humor or terror, making what could have been a witty pastiche into another cheesy slice-and-dice horror flick. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The pervasive gore overpowers the few clumsy attempts at wit here... Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: A film that, despite a strong visual sense, has simply no grasp on its characters or its plot. 'Nevermore', indeed. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: 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. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: 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. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: The Raven is a squawking, silly picture that never takes flight. Read more

John DeFore, Washington Post: We immediately understand why Cusack is not known for playing men who lived before 1984. Read more