It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The movie is brilliant. The adaptation is very well done. It has good special effects and manages to have you intrigued all the time about what will happen.The Portrayal of Poe is absolutely fantastic; John Cusack did a fantastic job.The Reven went on the big screen on April 27, 2012, in the United States. Many people loved it but others did not because many expected it to be a horror movie.The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado and The Raven are Poe works that contain macabre and interesting stories. I read a little about them and I saw The Raven is one of the best works of Edgar Allan Poe.I love the movie and I recommend it. It has intense moments but honestly, you can't take your eyes off the screen because it keeps you guessing whats going to happen next. If you like mysteries, this movie if for you.

The "Pit and the Pendulum" scene was particularly gruesome. My favorite Poe story. I've also seen the movie versions; one with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, the one with Vincent Price and the one with Lance Henrickson. In all three, plus the actual story, the victim escapes or is rescued. This is the first version I've seen where the victim dies. That was actually a real device that was used by the Spanish Inquisition.

This is a reasonable watch, the Gothic fog-bound atmosphere of 19th century Baltimore is well done. John Cusack is however miscast as Poe it needs someone with a more neurotic even creepy look, but given there is a love story interwoven that was not going to happen. The basic premise is sound and even if there are a few plot-holes hold together reasonably well. It is spoiled in the end by the end or rather the very end .. are we to believe the evil mastermind is so dumb he has used his real name .. tsk tsk and through that name his fate is sealed in the final scene. NAH! make no sense.

It has to be said. Nevermore. There, I've said it; and I guess the authors felt like saying it too. Why is the film titled The Raven ? The authors struggled, I guess. It must have been someone else's idea. I sat all the way through it, but I wonder why. Sometimes a film is so eye-stretching while you watch it that you can't tell if it might be abysmally brilliant. Occasionally, what you thought was appalling improves with longer acquaintance. I'm sure this is not the case here, however, which is why I'm getting in with the aptly fitting "Nevermore".Several reviewers have pointed out that the dialogue was wildly anachronistic. The acting was journeyman workmanlike, but not very good. The girl was sweet-looking, but spent most of her time spattered with earth, wedged between horizontal parallel planks. What had she ever seen in Edgar ? He was irremediably uncharismatic. In the end the butler did it, but there wasn't much to go on. I thought for a long time the girl's father was a possibility, because he was so unlikely. He might have been planning to stitch up Poe, the unwelcome son-in-law. Perhaps that's what I was meant to think.I found this disc sitting in my collection, but if I'd already seen it once it had totally erased itself, in every respect, from my consciousness, which shows you how unmemorable it was. Nevermore. The idea was marginally interesting, so it gets an extra star. The team that made this hybrid was stunningly cross-national. Their names covered Europe, and the never-ending end-credits made intriguing reading.