Stars Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Miranda Otto, Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney and Bruce Spence(!) Directed by Stuart Beattie Maybe the obvious could be stated here. This is NOT a Frankenstein movie. It does do a “Cliff Notes” version of the original fable in the opening five minutes, more to establish the character of the creature itself more than to actually tell the original tale. Anyone not familiar with the text may be asking a few questions at this point as to the creatures’ motives and general outlook on life, not that the subsequent action beat does anything except to kick off the basic plot for the whole movie. So what we have is that Frankenstein’s creature (played gamely by Aaron Eckhart) being caught in the middle of a supernatural war between demons and gargoyles - who occasionally look like stone angels. Apparently, the demons want the creature for reasons explained later in the movie. After learning about the situation he’s in from the Gargoyle Queen (Miranda Otto), who also names him “Adam”, the creature decides it’s none of his business and prefers to be left alone. He does grab a couple of fighting sticks and leaves, but those pesky demons just won’t leave him alone. In any case, up to 200 years pass and he gets pretty handy handling those heavy metal batons in dispatching the occasional demon, and decides enough is enough, time to take the fight to them here in the present day (convenient). Now, really, what were you expecting from a movie that’s advertised as “From the producers of Underworld” coming out in the seasonal dumping ground that had the likes of Underworld, Priest and Legion, not to mention Outlander? For me, it’s exactly what I expected to be, so maybe I wasn’t as entirely disappointed as many others (it would seem, based on the slew of negative reviews I’ve read thus far). Perhaps the cast list would have elicited some higher expectations. After all, Eckhart isn’t really someone one would expect to play Frankenstein’s creature. Miranda Otto has been in some respectable films and then there’s Bill Nighy who hardly disappoints. Then again, Nighy does flit about various projects from high profile stuff like playing Davy Jones in the Pirates Of The Caribbean sequels and appearing in the Harry Potter movies, but he’s also played the vampire king in the Underworld saga. As for Eckhart… maybe he wanted a comic book franchise of his own after appearing (and dying) in Christopher Nolan’s Batman series. Too bad he doesn’t have more range to play with beyond brood, look angry or annoyed and basically punch things. And yes, I, Frankenstein is based on a comic book, and it plays its sensibilities straight out of the graphic novel. The movie is very much a comic book come to life in a decent way, not as a spectacular adaptation, like the Marvel movies for example. This is basically a “time waster”, something you’d catch on cable / satellite TV if you notice it while channel surfing. You might wish it dared to do something more, but perhaps it’s the lack of human characters to empathise with. One might find it odd that aside from Yvonne Strahovski’s very human and young-ish scientist trying to replicate Dr. Frankenstien’s original experiment, and her dispensable assistant, there aren’t any or many humans around. Even with the bombastic, destructive, almost epic-feel finale, there isn’t a human cost - which was fine. The human perspective in such movies tend to cause more problems (see Green Lantern, which really should have stayed in space once Hal got to Oa) than simply provide a window into the supernatural world. At least it had one really cool stick fighting (kali, maybe eskrima) sequence which is such a rare thing to see in films. That really grabbed my attention. Otherwise, approach with caution. Rating: ** 1/2 /5
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2017
|