Well friends, I heard about this movie for some time. I saw trailers and blurbs that made it seem like it might be a smarmy take-off of the Sherlock Holmes franchise, all tongue-in-cheek and a not serious retelling of a classic tale that would leave us all like goldfish tossed out of our bowls, gasping for air. Not a bit of it. I was told I would NOT like this version at all. Tommy rot! I will hint you this: If I like it now and it’s been panned, it WILL become a cult favorite, mark my words, sir!
Definitely Steam Punk meets Frankenstein for sure. But what better time and place for Steam Punk? Giant lumbering steam driven machines generating chaotic electrical currents in smokey, wet, steamy London town… which is shown in vivid, beautiful detail to be on the cusp of the advent of the Industrial Revolution as the previous Gothic era dies.
The costumes, sets, decor, locations and acting are all sublime! It is a gritty look at a world just barely out of the Feudal Ages, not quite ready for white hospital rooms and electric lights glaring everywhere. It is a dark place. A place where death and horrible injuries are common. And these are what Victor Frankenstein is fighting against with his very soul.
This is Frankenstein the book, the plays and movies all re-envisioned, reimagined, mixed together and beautifully melded…but not at all a lumbering Hollywood “monster.” This Frankenstein has action, pathos, rage, political and religious undertones and subtexts that propel it back to the initial Mary Shelley question: “Should Man tamper with God’s plan?” Victor Frankenstein answers a definitive YES! Indeed, it’s going to happen anyway, whether he does it or some n’er-do-well super rich brat does it, it will happen. And Victor wants to be the one who is remembered for doing it!
The whole thing, as a reimagined version of the myth that started with the idea of Science violating nature and paying the price, is a well scripted, well acted and even thought provoking but headlong dive into the subject of scientific manipulation of the flesh and the quest to conquer death. The gritty and visceral drama (literally, the movie is strewn with viscera, body fluids and other unmentionable things…at the time none of these things seemed to bother anyone…) moves along briskly. It beginswith Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy), who discovers a like-minded compatriot in the form of “Igor” (Daniel Radcliffe) a nameless, deformed circus clown, enslaved to an evil owner, and yet medically adept and brilliant. He saves Igor from the circus, helps save the love of his life, Lorelei (Jessica Brown Findlay), gives Igor his name and gets him to help construct a monstrous, half rotten corpse made from a chimp and other animals, and to bring it to life. All so well done that you are swept along into the possibilities and yet the possible evil of it. Meanwhile Inspector Turpin of the Yard (Andrew Scott), a sort of super-religious Sherlock Holmes, is seeking for a man who was trying to purchase animal parts from a local zoo and the circus. He has deduced (correctly) that a scientist is seeking to probe into cosmic mysteries that no one should investigate, by God! He suspects Frankenstein, but cannot pin him down.
Because so much of the budget must have gone to CGI and monster effects, etc. the story is condensed, yet the meetings between Victor and the Inspector, between Igor and Lorelei and between Victor and his Father as well as the evil Boy-Trump Finnegan (Freddie Fox), are extremely well played out in every case. There is evidence of rage and madness on nearly everyone’s part. After all we are talking about science creating a person without any involvement from any God. For that time such a thing was indeed considered monstrous. The director (Paul McGuignau) does a terrific job of cutting and splicing the necessary components to tell the story written by Max Landis, (John Landis’ son),while using the backdrop of a true combination of Crumbling Gothic and dystopian Steam Punk worlds.
This will be a FAVORITE movie of mine. One I will watch over and over again and will purchase on DVD. It’s a monster movie, with nods to all the prequels, sequels, books, and other movies of the genre for aficionados like me. It had good monsters and is a monster movie that leaves you wanting more (and which offers a possibility of a grand sequel!) I enjoyed the whole thing. From start to finish…except for my tastes it wasn’t long enough!
Sincerely yr obd’t servant,
David St. Albans, Esq. an cinematical critic of some note.
St. Albans Literary and Art site 