"The Raven" - the movie

Though I have never considered myself a Poe fan, I did enjoy this movie.  I do not know much of anything about Poe's life.  The intro says that Poe was found dying in Baltimore in 1849 and that the last days of his life were a mystery.  From this introduction we get a murderer imitating Poe's stories in gruesome murders and Poe is drafted by the police to help find the killer since, after all, the killer is imitating Poe's fiction.  The best thing is that John Cusack does a great job with the character of Poe.  The plot moves along nicely without any meaningless side issues and the ending is rather abrupt but satisfying.  There are scenes with ravens, but I do not understand how they add to the plot except that the real Poe is associated with ravens more than anything.  All in all, this is an entertaining movie.