‘Frankenstein’ Review: A Beautiful, Flawed Creation

Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a passion project for the director years in the making, promised to be a more faithful adaptation of the book. The film is split into multiple sections, specifically one that follows Victor and one that follows his creation. Victor’s section shows his homelife and every event that led to trying to create life. The creature’s sections depict him going on his own self discovery journey, grappling with what it means to be human and how he fits into that. An epic tale of the pursuit for knowledge, humanity, and retribution, Frankenstein though blatant with its themes, is a timeless story. Luckily I can say this new adaptation feels necessary. Read our full review for Frankenstein below. 

Since the film is split into two sections, one naturally is better than the other. The first part of the movie is shown through Victor’s perspective as I mentioned above. This is the weakest point of the film. It felt a tad slow and arbitrary at points. Nothing interesting or new enough was given to explain why he would play God to warrant the amount of time spent on his backstory. The connection between wanting to prove his father a point felt too thin to feel earned and we do not get a single moment of Victor actually being a decent person.

The film wants us to think that from the age of fifteen he was becoming a monster, making the descent into madness feel inevitable instead of tragic. You truly do not care about this man in any regard, no reason to give him any sympathy. This makes the film lack narratively in a lot of ways while we are following him, making it the clear weakest part of the film. Which is sad to say because I think the story of a man daring to play God should be very interesting. Yet if we are only given what feels like a very black and white portrayal of this man, it leaves a lot to be desired. 

Del Toro seems more interested in the creature, which is not new for him. Once we switch perspectives the film really finds its footing. This is mostly due to how great Jacob Elordi’s portrayal of the creature is. This section follows the creature going on his own for the first time and experiencing the world. When he was first created he was stunted by only being exposed to Victor, who was at most times cruel and unforgiving, and now he is able to interact with people of a different nature.

My favorite part of the entire film is where we see the relationship between the creature and a blind old man blossom. There are a lot of themes of nature versus nurture in this specific adaptation, and this older man shows that the creature is not a monster by nature and instead can be nurtured into a good person. This whole story felt extremely important to understand why the creature is the way he is in the present day. Making all the themes and ending come together very nicely. 

This is a huge story and Del Toro handled it very well. Though I did like Frankenstein a lot, I did not get a clear idea as to why this was a passion project for Del Toro. A lot of grace was given to the creature, which was nice to see in an adaptation, but anyone who has read the book or seen more than one adaptation knows that the real monster is Victor. I did not get enough added to the film to make me feel like this is personal to the director. I think it is a necessary adaptation because it still feels new enough to warrant existing, but I was not given an emotional draw to make me care as much as I could have. I totally recommend giving this film your time. It is a great watch full of excellent performances and some good crafts, but I would not say it is a home run. 

Frankenstein is directed by Guillermo Del Toro and stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Charles Dance, Felix Kammerer, Christoph Waltz, David Bradley, and Ralph Ineson. The film had a limited theatrical run on October 17 and is now available to watch on Netflix.

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