I’ve always had a soft spot for Guillermo del Toro. His work, though imperfect, strives for a unique blend of dark fantasy and character study. When I heard he was adapting Frankenstein (the novel, rather than remaking any of the previous films), I was incredibly excited. For one, a more faithful look at Frankenstein’s monster is missing from some adaptations, along with the theme of what truly makes one a monster. Danny Boyle’s stage play rendition was quite faithful, but with a limited release, fans of the novel were left wanting.
Due to Netflix’s asinine choice to only release this film in limited theaters, I was finally able to watch it this weekend. I went in with a lot of goodwill, but my expectations were maybe unreasonably high. It’s a mixed bag, but a mostly good mixed bag.
The Story
While the overall vibe of the original 1818 novel is present throughout, the story is very different. Despite the consistent themes, it might as well be a completely new story. This doesn’t mean it’s bad though, and I actually really enjoyed a lot of the changes del Toro made to the source material. Victor’s backstory is changed to provide a tragic motivation for his actions as he works to cheat death through science. Elizabeth (his wife in the novel) is now his brother William’s wife, and her distance from Victor gives her a lot more character and agency as she navigates the events of the story.
My biggest issue is the ending, and while I won’t discuss the details here, it’s rather sudden and doesn’t feel earned. The story crafted here is massive and I’m honestly surprised just how much they were able to accomplish in the two and a half hour runtime. To fully flesh this out though, a mini-series was probably a better method. Either that, or it needed to be cut down exponentially. Instead, what we have is a fairly well-paced story that feels jarring when it needs to move between its major scenes.
Look and Feel
This movie reminded me a lot of del Toro’s Crimson Peak, and that’s a good thing. While some of the costumes and set pieces are certainly not going for historical accuracy, it sets up this alternative history that works with arguably one of the oldest sci-fi stories in existence. Every shot is immaculate, and the use of color in many of the stills is just dazzling to look at.
The practical effects in this movie are kind of insane. The scenes with the ship, and even the building explosion, are all practical, and all the sets have a lived-in quality that just can’t be faked. Most notable is Elordi’s prosthetics, which allegedly took almost 10 hours to apply and look so good in every scene he’s in. This appearance, combined with Elordi’s performance, is otherworldly without feeling disconnected from reality. His appearance is grotesque, yet so very human. It’s a really great design.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the occasional usage of CGI in this film. In typical Netflix original movie fashion, the CGI sticks out and really doesn’t look good. Most egregious is the use of CGI for the animals. They look very video-game-like and not in a good way.
Performances
I really have no complaints about the performances in this film. Even when the writing suffers, the performances carry the film. Oscar Isaac does an incredible job as Victor, giving us enough of a balance of sentiment and villainy that the audience just can’t quite discard him completely. Jacob Elordi is the star of this movie though, and his performance as the Creature blew me away. It’s a layered performance with a mix of quiet moments and big physical scenes, and he pulls it all off so well and makes it look easy. It made me actually want to go see his upcoming performance in Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, just to see him tackle another interesting literary character.
Overall, there’s a lot to like about this movie, and though the ending left me wanting, it’s a really great film. It’s beautiful to watch, and every performance is interesting and brings something new to the character. It’s certainly worth watching, and I hope Netflix gives more thought to wider releases in the future.
