VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN is an entertaining enough movie, but it doesn’t feel like it has enough of what makes the film about Frankenstein and his creating life.  It seems like an afterthought as you have romance and a couple of bromance subtext plots going.  It seems to be interested in telling more about the story from Igor’s perspective (when Igor isn’t a character in the original book and he was an invention for the movies) and you have a God fearing Police Inspector named Turpin (Andrew Scott who is better as Moriarty on SHERLOCK) wanting to nail Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) and Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) for murder (even when he knows it isn’t the case) and crimes against God/ nature.  So VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN is full of philosophical debate on whether man should be allowed to create life while Victor feels Igor shouldn’t waste his time on circus girl Lorelei (Jessica Brown Findlay) whose life was saved by Igor’s quick medical thinking (after she falls from a faulty circus swing).  The center of the book of victor crating a human monster seems to be an afterthought as screenwriter Max Landis is more interested in focusing non the human characters and their lives that the movie drifts far away from the central plot (and ideas) seen in better FRANKENSTEIN movies.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Four deleted scenes (with the exception of a baby reanimation scene) are pretty forgettable and cut for pacing).

 

7-Part making-of documentary (about 30 minutes long with behind-the-scenes footage, cast and crew interviews, and clips from the movie):

DIRECTING FRANKENSTEIN

BECOMING VICTOR

FROM HUNBACK TO VICTORIAN GENTLEMAN

CHASING THE VILLAIN

LORD BARNABY’S CIRCUS

IT’S ALIVE

CREATING THE END

 

Three galleries: PRODUCTION DEISGN, PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHY, BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Theatrical trailer, and sneak peak previews for THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, THE REVENANT, SPECTRE, THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED, HINTMAN: AGENT 47 along with a trailer for Discover Digital HD

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: Great cast and great production design can’t save VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN from straying too far from the source material and being an inferior Frankenstein movie to what has come before.

 

This review is ©3-12-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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