{"id":4809,"date":"2012-10-17T07:53:19","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T14:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=4809"},"modified":"2021-05-31T15:23:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T22:23:43","slug":"review-raven-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2012\/10\/review-raven-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Raven Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Raven<\/em><\/strong> has some interesting scenes and features fine performances from John Cusack, Alice Eve and, to a lesser extent, Luke Evans (but mainly because the character merely chases down leads).<\/p>\n

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\nThe Raven (2012)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Genre(s): <\/strong>Suspense\/Thriller, Crime, Drama
\nFox | R \u2013 110 min. \u2013 $39.99 | October 9, 2012<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>James McTeigue
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Hannah Shakespeare & Ben Livingston (written by)
\nCast: <\/strong>John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/strong>April 27, 2012<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Commentary, Featurettes, Deleted\/Extended Scenes, DVD Copy, Digital Copy
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>2<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>39.6 GB
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 3.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

James McTeigue, director of the highly popular but, in my opinion overrated, V for Vendetta <\/em>and Ninja Assassin<\/em> (not to mention an uncredited role in the disastrous Invasion<\/em> production), brings a new spin on the dark Edgar Allan Poe with The Raven<\/em><\/strong>. This is a film which tries to capitalize on 18th<\/sup>\/19th<\/sup> century mystery genre brought about with Sherlock Holmes<\/em>, but unlike Guy Ritchie\u2019s ode to slow-mo this is less on style and even fairly thin in substance as well.<\/p>\n

The story, set in 1849, follows Edgar Allan Poe (JOHN CUSACK), the famous poet who has returned to Baltimore, basically penniless unable to pay for a drink and is in desperate need for something to get published in the local paper. Poe is an eccentric character who doesn\u2019t have any friends but he is in a secret relationship with one Emily Hamilton (ALICE EVE) but her mogul father (BRENDAN GLEESON), like many others who know Poe, hates the man with a passion and wants him as far away from his daughter as possible. But love conquers all and during one of the few tender moments in the film, Poe proposes marriage to which she accepts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, not all is quiet in Baltimore when a sadistic Killer has struck killing three women and despite police being at the door, manages to escape without a trace. The case is handled by Detective Fields (LUKE EVANS) and he discovers how the killer eluded police: via a catch release on a window, an element Fields recognizes in one of Poe\u2019s stories. When one of Poe\u2019s chief rivals at the paper is then killed with a swinging blade, also something out of one his stories, Fields calls him in for questioning, although he\u2019s quickly satisfied that Edgar himself is not directly involved with the killings.<\/p>\n

If things weren\u2019t already personal, it soon does when the Killer kidnaps Ms. Hamilton and threatens to kill her if Poe and the police don\u2019t follow his orders, including having Poe write a poem about the Killer\u2019s next victims. Now it\u2019s a race against time as the Killer leaves clues to the next victim and the possible Emily\u2019s location.<\/p>\n

When I watched the trailers for The Raven<\/em><\/strong>, it seemed like a crossover of Guy Ritchie\u2019s Sherlock Holmes<\/em> with the torture porn Saw<\/em> movies. Thankfully, this wasn\u2019t in the torture porn realm outside of one gruesome scene, though at the same time, this wasn\u2019t exactly a movie which had anything memorable going for it. Add to that, we have characters who are fairly bland and not entirely likeable including Cusack\u2019s Edgar Allen Poe who came across as a darker version of Downey\u2019s Sherlock, and not as much fun.<\/p>\n

On the whole, The Raven<\/em><\/strong> is an adequately entertaining movie featuring some decent performances, especially from John Cusack and, on a more limited role, Alice Eve as the love interest. I didn\u2019t feel their relationship was as well developed as it could have been but it was good enough to at least be believable why Poe would fight as he did to find and save her. For his part, Luke Evans does well with an underwritten character; he also shows the same charisma which made him standout in The Three Musketeers<\/em> and Immortals<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When it comes down to it, it\u2019s not a bad film and aptly made from director James McTeigue who stormed the scene with V for Vendetta<\/em>, under the tutelage of the Wachowski\u2019s. That being said, The Raven<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t terribly memorable thanks to a bland plot which, by the second half, became more tedious than thrilling.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Blu-ray comes in a glossy slip cover.<\/p>\n

Audio Commentary<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 The track features Director James McTeigue & Producers Marc D. Evans, Trevor Macy and Aaron Ryder. This is a pretty straightforward commentary where the participants provide information on how the movie was made, background on some of the scenes and where they were shot, and other tidbits.<\/p>\n

Deleted & Extended Scenes (10:41; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 There are six scenes included and they\u2019re mostly time filler and really don\u2019t add much to the plot.<\/p>\n

The Raven Guts: Bringing Death to Life (13:32; HD)<\/span><\/strong> is a pretty basic \u2018making-of\u2019 featurette filled with behind-the-scenes footage, cast\/crew interviews and scenes from the movie. You get some insight into how the movie was made, but it\u2019s still superficial.<\/p>\n

The Madness, Misery, and Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe (9:50; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 This is a short biography of Poe and his background. It\u2019s actually pretty intriguing and I wish this was a more feature-length documentary…<\/p>\n

Behind the Beauty and Horror (2:18; HD)<\/span><\/strong> covers the killings based on Poe\u2019s stories in the movie.<\/p>\n

The Raven<\/span><\/em><\/strong> Presents John Cusack and James McTeigue (2:45; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 The star and director have a short sit down interview with one another. Like the previous featurette, it\u2019s only a glimpse rather than anything meaningful.<\/p>\n

Music for The Raven<\/em>: The Team (5:10; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 This is a behind-the-scenes featurette covering the music\/score used in the film.<\/p>\n

Theatrical Trailer (1:15; HD)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Previews<\/strong> \u2013 House at the End of the Street<\/em>, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter<\/em><\/p>\n

The release also includes a DVD\/Digital Copy<\/span><\/strong> combo disc.<\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Raven<\/em><\/strong> crows onto Blu-ray with a detail-rich 1080p high-definition transfer. The film, presented in its original 2.40 theatrical widescreen aspect ratio, features fine detail levels from beginning to end while the color array is on the muted side but only because the movie is dark in most scenes, even during daylight shots. It\u2019s never a given that a new release will have a good picture transfer, but this one was fairly impressive.
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AUDIO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track might not be the most robust lossless track I\u2019ve come across, but it\u2019s still never-the-less a solid track. The dialogue levels come through the center channel while any action elements or Lucas Vidal\u2019s score lifts up the soundtrack for the front and rear speakers.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, The Raven<\/em><\/strong> has some interesting scenes and features fine performances from John Cusack, Alice Eve and, to a lesser extent, Luke Evans (but mainly because the character merely chases down leads). However, the movie is also pretty bland in terms of the story. While it starts off well enough, it loses steam by the second half. The Blu-ray itself offers excellent audio and video transfers while the features are on the average side.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The Movieman<\/em>
\nPublished: <\/strong>10\/17\/2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Raven has some interesting scenes and features fine performances from John Cusack, Alice Eve and, to a lesser extent, Luke Evans (but mainly because the character merely chases down leads).    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[299,1555,31,1412,1716],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-alice-eve","tag-brendan-gleeson","tag-john-cusack","tag-luke-evans","tag-raven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26272,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions\/26272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}