Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2012

It’s an intriguing premise: a 19th-century villain modeling his ghastly crimes on the fevered writings of Edgar Allen Poe. And John Cusack as Poe? Who better? It’s well made and entertaining to a point, but ultimately Poe’s stories serve merely a framework on which to hang yet another only-in-a-screenwriter’s-mind serial-killer clunker. The dialogue’s more intelligent than the narrative, and by the time the perp is unmasked, you have ceased to care. Not as phony and vulgarized as the recent Sherlock Holmes movies, but Poe as an action hero? Please. And Cusack? Hell, Nick Cage could do this.