Frankenstein – Monday 10th November 2025

I never read ‘Frankenstein’, and I didn’t see the 1994 film either; I had a basic understanding of the story, but generally speaking, my concept of ‘Frankenstein’ was from the black and white movies starring Boris Karloff, which I vaguely remember from my childhood.

So I came to this version from ‘Guillermo del Toro’ pretty fresh. I liked it!

I have no idea how faithful it is to the book, but I enjoyed the story, and the structure worked well. ‘Oscar Isaac’ was great as Victor Frankenstein, and ‘Charles Dance’, as his stern, punishing father, was brilliant.

I was less taken with ‘Jacob Elordi’ as Frankenstein’s ‘monster’, not because the acting was poor; ‘Elordi’ does a great job. It’s just that he’s too ‘good-looking’ to be a monster! He’s this super tall, muscular, mysterious character, draped in black; chick’s love that shiz! So, a girl falling for him despite his appearance, is a bit of a stretch.

The girl in question, ‘Elizabeth’ (played by ‘Mia Goth’) was the weakest of the cast; she just didn’t have the screen presence to suggest that a person would fall for her by merely catching a glimpse of her. She didn’t command the screen or give her character the necessary weight to imply she’s the centre of the monster’s world.

The film had great production design and costumes, but I was let down by the cinematography; it had that same ‘well-lit’, lack of contrast that plagues all modern-movies. Many scenes were also bathed in fake ‘golden hour’ sunlight, which just screams artifice, making scenes that were supposedly real, look like they were shot using a ‘green screen’. It just looked like a Marvel movie, which isn’t a compliment!
A good, and lavish film, but with a few tweaks, it could have been a masterpiece (at least compared to modern movies).

Worth watching though!