Part of me will never understand the premise here: Victor Frankenstein pours his entire soul into reanimating the dead, even if offering precious life just for seconds at a time … yet once he succeeds in passing the 30-minute mark, the subject itself is now immortal? How does that work? There ought to be a station between “works for a half-hour” and “lives forever, no matter what it is subjected to,” right? Everything dies, right? Even a guy brought to life by electricity doesn’t have an endless battery … and where is the monster’s charging cord, anyway? Is it like one of those electric car situations where you just leave the creature in the driveway overnight? Clearly, I don’t get horror.
Mad scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) was born to a Great Santini type of father. When Victor’s mother dies shortly after birthing Victor’s younger brother, li’l Victor learns a valuable lesson: the importance of being a dick. This aids him his entire life.
The film starts in aftermath territory. In the frozen Arctic, a Danish crew happens upon Victor and monster. Several crewmen lose their lives needlessly while trying to protect a man (Victor) with a broken leg. The creature takes three blunderbuss shots to the midsection and falls through the ice, but these are mere impediments. The creature cannot die. Just in case you don’t know this story; it’s about a man and the amalgam of reconnected dead flesh he reanimates into an indestructible creature. It’s mad science, 19th century style, and why “Doctor” Frankenstein needs multiple bodies to piece together like some weird human decoupage project is beyond me.
The rest of the film is told in two long flashbacks, Victor’s Tale and The Creature’s Tale. Pretty sure one of them involved “jazz hands.” While none of this amused me at first viewing, the second go showed me a few things to like about the film before The Creature makes the scene – one is Victor and his benefactor (Christoph Waltz) going over their plans, you know, just two mad scientists talkin’ shop. Another is the whimsical mood music the film chooses while introducing horror on screen. There’s also the moment where Victor is combing a battlefield post-war for fresh bodies. Gee, buddy, how many fresh corpses are you trying to reanimate here?
I found the second part less humorous, but much more engaging for The Creature (Jacob Elordi) has its own perspective and no intent to
hurt, only to help. Thing is … he’s hideous, misunderstood, has godlike strong (why?), and is fully able to defend itself; as long as The Creature cares, it is just a matter of time before there’s a body count.
Frankenstein is long at two-and-a-half hours. I’m certain you could lose at least 45 minutes of this film without missing much; I still don’t understand why Victor needed to reanimate the dead – was there a plan to bring back his mother? Hence, I don’t know how he had a change of heart after proving successful. There wasn’t even a grace period of self-congratulation. He went almost straight from “I’ve got to bring this creature to life!” to “I’ve got to kill it and burn all the evidence along with it.” A little too late for the change of heart, doc. The second attempt at watching Frankenstein kept my attention and I did genuinely feel for the “monster,” which I find enough to recommend the film, but not enough for me to want it to win any awards.
There once was a doctor named Frank
Regarded by the sane as a crank
He made a weird creature
With a most unique feature
For him, Playing God was a prank
Rated R, 149 Minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley
Genre: Revisiting classic horror
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The reborn?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Mad scientists
