I, FRANKENSTEIN is a new twist
on the classic tale of
Frankenstein as it briefly touches on the original source material throughout
the film while spinning in new directions.
The film begins with Frankenstein’s monster (Aaron Eckhart) carrying the
body of Victor Frankenstein to be buried at the family cemetery (Frankenstein
froze to death in his pursuit of his monster).
Demons attack and want to capture the monster at the cemetery due to the
fact that he represents the opportunity to animate dead bodies to be possessed
by the souls of descended demons. The
monster is rescued by the Gargoyle Order and their spiritual leader Leonore
(Miranda Otto) gives the monster a name of Adam. Adam decides not to work with
the Gargoyles
and sets out to remote corners to evade the demons. He kills the demons for
the next 200 years
before he decides to bring the fight to the demons. The leader of the
demons, Prince Naberius
(Bill Nighy), wants Adam brought to him, but the demons manage to get hold of
the next best thing- the journal of Dr. Victor Frankenstein.
I, FRANKENSTEIN is the same
type of movie for the same fans
who like the UNDERWORLD films, but the characters are less developed and the
most interesting characters beings played by Aaron Eckhart, Billy Nighy, and
Kevin Grevioux (who wrote the graphic novel the movie is based on and co-wrote
the screenplay) while the most two likeable Gargoyles get killed off and
Miranda Otto sleepwalking through her performance. The action is great, but
I wish you actually
cared for the characters with an anti-hero in search of a soul not as great as
other anti-heroes like Riddick or Selene.
I think the movie should have been longer if it meant inserting some
much-needed character development. In
the end, I, FRANKENSTEIN ends up being a movie you rent or watch on cable TV
and forget afterwards. It is not even
close to the greatness of the first two UNDERWORLD films (maybe the fault lands
at the feet of director Stuart Beattie who writes unremarkable scripts which
end up being popcorn entertainment you can forget afterwards or complain about
how much better it could have been).
This review is ©1-28-2014
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
to feedback@enterline-media.com
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