Frankenstein (2025)

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ fandomwire.com/frankenstein-review/

"Frankenstein is a powerful, visceral film that solidifies Guillermo del Toro as a master of atmosphere and emotion.

Thanks to Jacob Elordi's transcendent performance as The Creature and exceptional multi-departmental work, the movie takes the legendary tale and transforms it into a deep, complex meditation on human fallibility and the terror of rejection. It's a visual and thematic experience that demands patience and personal, intellectual, and emotional investment.

Shockingly violent, it's undeniably one of the most important stories of the year. The combination of geniuses in front of and behind the camera results in a feature that confronts us with an undeniable truth: the tale of Frankenstein isn't about creating a monster; it's about the eternal and necessary challenge of recognizing our own humanity in those we reject."

Rating: A-

This has got be Oscar Isaac at his best yet, depicting the obsessive scientist hell-bent on proving that he could use science to defeat death itself. He is the son of an acclaimed but rather brutal physician (Charles Dance) and is galvanised further to his chosen path by the sudden death of his mother. His theories disgust civilised society but the wealthy “Harlander” (Christophe Waltz) agrees to fund his experiments to what he hopes will be their logical conclusion. Now secreted away in his remote castle, and quite literally cannibalising spare parts from graveyards and mortuaries alike, he awaits that lightning storm that could just bring Jacob Elordi to life. The problem for the Baron is that he is disappointed with his creation and has no concept that it looks to him very much as a father. Imprisoned in the basement, the “monster” is befriended by “Elizabeth” (Mia Goth) who sympathises with it’s ghastly predicament - but before she can help a great conflagration sets in train a cat and mouse struggle between created and creator that takes them to the depths of the frozen wastes where an exploration ship is trapped in thick pack ice - where our story both starts and concludes. Isaac really does own his megalomaniac obsessive role here and the whole creative effort put into the production design turns this from simple science fiction into a multi-textured love story with it’s fair share of moral dilemmas, hate and loathing too. Elordi? Well he does bring back memories of Christopher Lee in this role, only here is is also rewarded with an extra degree of articulation and towards the end, more of a conscience and even an amount of personality - and he manages to portray his character’s frustrated and confused conflict well, if fairly sparingly. Whilst there are common points of reference with earlier iterations of this story, this enlivens it in a far more characterful and in many ways more justifiable way, and I thought it flew by. Big screen if you can, though Netflix does seem to have limited it’s cinema release quite a bit, because it might lose much of it’s stylish and gothic menace as well as it’s emotionally-charged nuance on a small screen.

I walked in at 44 minutes. The last hour and 45 has less whinging in accents. Bad Lighthouse. Swearengen in Wick 4.

I went to a restaurant and they were playing this as though it was a serious movie. One could not pass through the projector beam. I could see my hair in the letterbox. I'm glad I didn't see this all in the theatre. I watched the beginning later to see what I missed and I was not pleased.

Mia Goth touching his wound. Nice. Hoped for more from that treasure trove. Forest Spirit learns to read. Nice. Victor tries too hard in character and on screen. Fr-long-bullshit-stein.

Why is the creature a hot guy? WHY?

Netflix has a thing with hottening everyone lately, even Ed Gein, and I just don't get it.

As with any GDT film, it is exceedingly interesting visually, and I'd go so far as to say his visual language rivals Tim Burton in excellence. This film is a visual marvel in basically every scene, a veritable feast for the eyes.

There are some great performances, especially among the bit players: Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz, and David Bradley in particular.

The real bummer, though, is that much of the book is left out and/or reimagined, so if you like the story as it is written, you'll probably be a little disappointed as I was.

Also, read the book. It's great.

guillermo del toro brings frankenstein back to life with so much heart and atmosphere. the world feels dark and gothic, but never without compassion. the performances hit hard, especially in how they show the creature’s loneliness and longing to be understood