'The Raven' not worth raving about

The Raven is a fictional account of the end of Edgar Allan Poe’s life.

Since the poem is the title of the film, we begin this review with his most famous and most often quoted line: “Quoth the raven — nevermore.”

-- Local show times, theaters, trailer.

Unfortunately, the new The Raven is not close to quotable. That ends up being ironic. Half of the screenwriting team of this non-quotable picture has the last name Shakespeare. If only Hannah and her co-writer Ben Livingston wrote as well and were as creative as the beloved Bard.

Or even Poe himself.

Here we must add an asterisk. The new comment is because there is an old The Raven. It is one of the popular Hammer films from the 1950s and 1960s. Done in 1963, The Raven starred a tortured Vincent Price, the villainous Boris Karloff and for comic relief, Peter Lorre. An up and coming actor named Jack Nicholson also had a part.

Damn. Like most of the old Hammer films, it was fun and still is if you can catch it on an old movie channel or stream it via Netflix or whatever you use.

The “new” The Raven is not so much fun. Or even that good.

On the last days of his life, a drunken and penniless Poe gets tangled up with a serial killer who is modeling brutal murders after the writer’s famous prose and poetry. At first, the police suspect Poe, but later they want his help. After all, who knows the writing better than the writer?

When his beloved girlfriend Emily is kidnapped, the killer instructs Poe to write and publish her story. He’s to imagine what happened to her. If he fails — she dies. With the kidnapping, the chase that runs you through the bowels of Baltimore is on.

And on. And on. And on.

Seemingly bored and not looking much like Poe, John Cusack plays the famous writer. Not given much to work with, Cusack — who is a great actor — makes the most of a dangerously dumb plot. He connects nicely with peripheral characters Luke Evans, doing excellent work as the lead detective, and a wonderful Alice Eve, playing Poe’s love interest.

Note to director James McTiegue (V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin). A whodunnit works best when you let the audience in on the game of finding the killer. The Raven’s killer clues mean everything to the characters and not much to the audience. Some of the clues are tossed off quickly or are poorly explained. When the “mystery” is eventually wrapped up and the credits roll, the head scratching starts in earnest.

There are positives. Not many but a few. Listening to accomplished actors read Poe’s poetry and excerpts from his short stories almost makes The Raven worth sitting through. Eve’s (She’s Out of My League) rendition of Poe’s famous Annabelle Lee is stunning.

This leads us back to Poe’s most famous quote. Quoth the Raven — nevermore. it seems like good advice because nothing in this movie is worth ravin’ about.

Mr. Movie rating: 2 stars

Rated R for mature themes, some blood and gore. It’s playing at Regal’s Columbia Center 8, the Fairchild Cinemas 12 and Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.

5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen

4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.

3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on video.

2 stars to 1 star: Don't bother.

0 stars: Speaks for itself.

This story was originally published April 27, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "'The Raven' not worth raving about."