The Raven (2012): Better than Some Ravens I could mention …

The Raven poster

Edgar Allan Poe

John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe

Screen Shot of Mac OS X 10•6•8 on my LCD TV screen

Bruce, on TELLY!

9th August 2012

You know, that’s a hell of a lot of photos for one post, isn’t it?

Isn’t it … ?

It is: especially when you consider that they’re mostly screen shots …

Oh … and a photo of my aging Mac Mini, Bruce, hooked up to my TV set.

I know it sounds daft, but it’s not something I’ve tried that often.

The once I did … ?   Was last night.   Which temporarily blew Bruce’s sound.

Happily, that’s something I’ve been able to reset: mostly by making sure that everything was reseated, and using the Apple Hardware tests on Bruce’s original Install disc.

Which was nice, from where I’m sitting …

But possibly not why this post caught your eye.

You’re probably wondering WHY I had an aging Mac Mini wired into a flat screen tv, aren’t you … ?

I’ll be frank.

I fancied seeing if I could watch the 2012, John McTeigue directed thriller, The Raven, that way.

The answer, there … ?   Is a definite yes.

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10th August, 2012.

Or, ay least, is a definite yes to watching a film on my TV, via Bruce.

You see, the model of TV I have has a vga socket, and matching audio jack: so in the case of films I’ve rented from iTunes — or stubborn video files that refuse to let themselves be converted into a format my TV can play — being able to hook the two up is useful.

And something I fancied doing with the copy I’d got hold of, of the 2012 film, The Raven.

Which — just so you know — isn’t the same as the 2006 film I’d caught at the same time as the DVD version of Black Swan.   The 2006 The Raven is a heap of dung that’s barely even usable as fertiliser … !

This year’s version, with John Cusack … ?

Well … 

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Named after the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, 2012 film, The Raven sees John Cusack as writer, Edgar Allan Poe, in his last days of life: living in Baltimore, hopelessly alcoholic, fast running out of cash … 

And secretly engaged to society débutante, Emily Hamilton: played by Alice Eve.

It’s at the point where our hero is being threatened by an enraged father, and fobbed off by an editor to ready to hire in Longfellow, that Poe is contacted by Inspector Emmett Fields (Luke Evans).

Baltimore’s finest isn’t after an autograph: isn’t even a Poe fan.

Oh, no … 

He’s got a crime scene, with a couple of dead bodies in it: that looks suspiciously like The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Not long after that, one of Poe’s critics is found dead, having been killed by an equally suspiciously familiar looking pendulum.

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Now, I’ve got to confess, I’m asking myself a few questions, after all that lot.

Firstly, was hooking up my aging Mac Mini to my TV worth the time and effort … ?

Absolutely, I think: it let me watch a film I’d’ve not seen in any other way, in something approaching the way a film of that ratio’s meant to be watched.

The next question, of course, was whether the 2012 The Raven was worth watching?

I’m not too sure, actually: I do know it’s one hell of an improvement on the 2006 film of the same name.

Which, frankly, isn’t that hard: Absentia was one hell of an improvement on the 2006 film.

But in and of itself … ?

I’ll be frank with you, I’m thinking that even though The Raven is an enjoyable way to kill some time,  7 handles that idea — of a literary serial killer — with a lot more conviction.

You might want to think about that …

The Raven (2012)★½☆☆☆