Frankenstein info:
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro and Mary Shelley
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, and Mia Goth
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. We are really on the downhill of the year now. By the time you read this, it will be about a week before Thanksgiving. Here in the Mindless household, a few Christmas decorations have made their way into the house. It’s also about time to pack away the shorts for the year.
So, a little bit of odd timing on my movie pick for the week. I didn’t review as many Halloween-type movies last month as I would have liked; however, I have one now. The newest remake of “Frankenstein” was available both in theaters and on Netflix, so there were a couple of ways to watch it. I chose the Netflix path this week. But before I get into too many frightening details, let me first put out a spoiler warning. At this point, I doubt many people don’t know about Dr. Frankenstein and his monster creation. But, for the few that don’t want to know what happens in this version, then I would run away… at least back to my other reviews to keep you safe for now.
Alright, for the rest of you brave souls, this “Frankenstein” was directed by the great Guillermo del Toro and may be one of the best adaptations I’ve seen yet. Guillermo has a fun track record of great, but creepy/dark films, so this was right up his Nightmare Alley (see what I did there?). This is one of his best… right up there with “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Shape of Water” for sure. He also has a knack for casting the correct person to play each role.
In this case, it’s Isaac as the titular character. From a trauma-induced childhood by his father (Charles Dance) and the loss of his mother at an early age, Victor Frankenstein became hell bent on defeating death. As a grown man, he sought an audience with the scientific council to secure funding for his research. After no one listens to him, he is approached by a man named Harlander (Waltz). A man who not only has the money, but also similar interests to Victor. Since this rendition has no Igor, Harlander sort of fills that spot.
Once his brother William (Felix Kammerer) and his bride-to-be Elizabeth (Goth) arrive, the three men get to work on building a lab. As this is going on, Victor falls for Elizabeth even though the feeling isn’t exactly mutual. Honestly, the setup for the creature being alive is actually better than the latter part. I really enjoyed the lab being built and Victor searching for the right body parts for his experiment. The bigger they are, the easier they are to work with.
Once Harlander dies and the creature (Elordi) wakes up, “Frankenstein” becomes very emotionally charged. Victor tries to teach it, but it never seems to learn or get any smarter. Thinking the whole thing was a failure, he burned down the lab in hopes that he would destroy everything, including the creature.
Instead, we see that not only is he very strong, but also smart enough to escape before the place is completely destroyed. He is then on the run for a bit until he hides out in an old mill and befriends an old blind man (David Bradley) who teaches him how to talk, feeds him, and lets him stay in the house. But once again, tragedy strikes as the old man is killed and the creature is shot and left for dead.
The whole thing ends in death again as both William and Elizabeth die right before their wedding is about to happen. The last bit of the story is filled with a back-and-forth chase between Victor and the creature. That ends up back to where the movie begins. In a ship frozen in the ocean on its way to the North Pole. After all the death and suffering at each other’s hands, Victor dies as the creature holds his hand and calls him father.
So, “Frankenstein” was a stunningly beautiful film with lots of amazing cinematography. The story was both haunting and dark, far more than Mary Shelley ever dreamed, I imagine. Victor was full of hubris and he and everyone he loved paid the price as his creation lived on. As nice as it looked, it was still a very sad story on the surface. Much like that of the original.
Overall, I think it was a great re-telling of the horror classic, and del Toro once again knows all the right moves to make in this genre. The characters were well planned out (even the ones that weren’t original). The story was bold and dark at the same time, and I spent most of the film with my eyes glued to its beauty. I didn’t much care for the very end, but I can live with it either way. I’m happy to give this another 8 out of 10.
Watch or wait?
In this case, since it was a limited theater release, you have no choice but to stream it at this point. However, on the plus side, it is now available to stream on Netflix. But all the same, I wouldn’t wait. I would watch it now because it’s that good.
Ok, that’s it for me this week, so now it’s your turn. What did you think of this latest version of “Frankenstein”? Did you enjoy it as much as I did or do you find some issues with it? I would like to know your thoughts in the comments below. In the meantime, I’m out of here and I will see you next week with a mindless movie review of some sort.
