In the pantheon of monsters, Frankenstein has not yet achieved the ubiquity of zombies or vampires in pop culture, and instead exists mainly as a “uh, actually” moment for pedants to point out that the character is actually called Frankenstein's Monster.
But wait: the real monster is actually Victor Frankenstein himself, and not a creature assembled in a laboratory from parts of a corpse!? This is the message Guillermo del Toro's FrankensteinA cautionary fable about fatherhood that's great to watch, but like the blood that runs through a monster's veins, it's a little cold.
Mary Shelley Frankenstein It's a fairly short book, but Del Toro's film clocks in at two and a half hours as he takes liberties with the plot and adds a main character in Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz). He funds scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), reanimating parts of corpses in a steampunk laboratory, creating a grotesque monster (Jacob Elordwho still looks hot through his gray Body Worlds makeup).
As expected from del Toro, the film looks incredible, carrying a monstrous grandeur. Pan's Labyrinth And Shape of water. Light pours brightly through every window, the terrain is as wild as the monster itself, and Victor's laboratory is in a windswept tower that looks like the eye of Sauron is about to pop out at any moment.
But as the intensity of the on-screen emotions rises amid murder and betrayal, the script doesn't quite live up to them, and Frankenstein becomes a moral tale, full of sharp teachings about cycles of violence, empathy for the humanity in everyone, and the refusal to torture scientific experiments in the dungeons of a creepy laboratory.
Worthy lessons, of course. But the film is all about appreciating people for their flaws and looking beyond their appearance to see the soul inside. FrankensteinAttractiveness is mostly superficial.
