I’ve been a fan of director Guillermo Del Toro’s output for years, going back to his appropriately strange and unsettling Spanish-language debut, the weird vampire flick Cronos, in 1992. Over the years, he has proven himself to not only be a masterfully aesthetic director, but also one with his finger on the emotional pulses of his various stories / characters. Added to which, the man has a clear affinity for the more gothic side of things and has capably injected that artistic sensibility into many of his movies, particular his ‘period’ films, of which this is definitely, and obviously, one.
When I first got wind of Del Toro opting to tackle this classic and often-told literary adaptation, it seemed highly fitting, much like how I felt about Spielberg taking on the retelling of sci-fi classic War of the Worlds back in 2005. Certain subjects beg for the touch of certain directors and Mary Shelley’s gothic story of mad scientist ‘Victor Frankenstein’ and the trials and tribulations of his man-made man aka ‘The Creature’, was ripe for the picking under Del Toro’s deft and visually-gorgeous direction.
But then I heard that Netflix was involved, and a wee bit of my enthusiasm waned. Now, don’t get me wrong, Netflix HAS produced a number of watchable and often entertaining pieces of content but for me, that’s all most of their projects come across as – slightly soulless content or mere product, if you will. Plus, being almost an exclusively streaming platform, it didn’t seem right that the work of a highly renowned and accomplished director like Del Toro would be relegated to the ‘small screen’, with the man’s natural penchant for lush production designs and detailed story-telling under threat of being grossly undermined by being beamed directly into the cozy confines of many a house-hold living room, as opposed to the darkened embrace of a movie theatre boasting the largest screen a movie-fan can find.
Turns out that fear was largely unfounded, as Netflix seemed to have experienced a moment of clarity somewhere along the way and opted to give Del Toro’s latest a modest but undeniable theatrical release, and having now seen this offering…I can see why they came to the light, so to speak.
Now, anyone who’s read any of my reviews from the last few months will note that in my current bachelor-styled living situation, my wifi sucks, plain and simple. I am unable to effectively stream content these days, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing…unless certain titles emerge that tickle my interest and I’m essentially forced to ‘wait and see’, with no prospects on how the hell I would comfortably do that…or when.
At least that was until I discovered the weird and wonderful world of Chinese bootleg Blu rays. It seems that there is an entire underground industry dedicated to taking almost exclusively streaming content and packaging it up in physical media form (right down to professional-looking box art) and unleashing it upon those of us who are searching and are so inclined to purchase. Added to which, given the current geopolitical state of things thanks to an alarming percentage of dumb-fuck ignorant Americans and the deranged manipulations of that orange-stained convicted felon / rapist / grifter / narcissist / war-monger / wannabe incestuous daughter-fucker asshole that they oh so (not) wisely opted to put in charge (again!), I’m currently less than inclined to have ANY of my hard-earned Canadian dollars heading south, for any reason. So, if I can deny the American economy any of my currency, yet can still enjoy that odd piece of legit entertainment that’s shit out, it’s a winning situation. Fuck all of you who have a problem with it.
Sincerely.
So, after having set out to score one of these curious Blu ray versions (among several others that will also be coming up for review) and receiving the oddly professional-looking end product, it was time to give yet another telling of ‘Dr. Frankenstein’ and his hideous man-creature creation a day in court, to see what Del Toro would do to differentiate his version from all the others that had come before it.
As most folks know, Frankenstein takes place mid-1800’s and focuses on the macabre machinations of an unhinged but brilliant doctor named ‘Victor Frankenstein’ (Oscar Isaac), who’s life-long grudge against death, due to the untimely demise of his mother during the birth of his brother when he was a child, has feverishly led him to the ability to essentially create life from death, with the financial aid of a quietly self-serving benefactor. He accomplishes this through the morbid construction of what comes to be known as ‘The Creature’ (Jacob Elordi), pieced together from the remains of executed criminals. The issues arise when ‘Victor’ comes to realize that he hadn’t planned what should occur post re-animation, which leads to a detachment from, and cruelty to, his increasingly self-aware creation. Enter into this a forbidden lust for his younger brother’s bride-to-be ‘Elizabeth’ (Mia Goth), coupled his growing disillusionment with his own work and the hints at growing intelligence in his chained creation, and a recipe for disaster looms large. A tragic turn of events leads to ‘Victor’ being horribly injured and ‘The Creature’ escaping, though their destinies are forever doomed to be intertwined. This is all book-ended by the additional tale of a Dutch sailing ship that has been trapped in Arctic ice, whose beleaguered crew is unfortunate enough to encounter both a near-death ‘Victor’ and, eventually, the brutal arrival of the pursuing monster that yearns for the acceptance and understanding of his creator, no matter how many mangled corpses it must leave in its wake.
And it was with that knowledge on a windy Saturday morning that I fired up my usual strong cup o Joe, snuck in a cheeky toke, and grabbed my pad and pen, ready for whatever morbidly strange shit Mr. Del Toro had in store for me through his own impassioned telling of this classic literary title.
I hit PLAY and got to scribbling some scribbles.
The scribbles…
-Cool opening scene. Some brutal kills right off the bat. Frankenstein opens on the frozen wastes of the Arctic, where we meet the beleaguered crew of a Dutch sailing ship that has become frozen into the ice, trapping it. Into this scenario comes both a near-death ‘Victor’, who is discovered by the crew, followed shortly thereafter by ‘The Creature’, who discovers the crew in his quest to find his maker. While it’s not ‘The Creature’s intention to terrorize and brutally murder, that’s exactly what ensues when several sailors panic and foolishly attempt to fight the hulking brute as it boards the ship, and a few of those deaths are pretty fucking gnarly.
-Lavish production design. Del Toro has a proven penchant for richly detailed sets and costumes and this project is no different.
-Charles Dance! I’ve always appreciated the presence of talented British thespian Charles Dance, going back to his 1992 portrayal of sympathetic-but-doomed prison doctor ‘Clemens’, in the much maligned-but-eventually appreciated Alien 3 (there is ONLY The Assembly Cut!). Here, he turns up as ‘Victor’s cold and clinical father, arguably the source of ‘Victor’s fascination and obsession with the mechanics of life-after-death.
-Young Victor does a good job. The kid playing young ‘Victor’ actually brought more nuance and character to the portrayal than I would’ve expected and I actually found myself mildly impressed with his performance.
-Waltz! The ever-reliable Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) shows up as a fan of ‘Victor’s controversial work and, for reasons that eventually reveal themselves, offers the young, driven doctor unlimited resources with which to continue his questionable research methods.
-Love the period details. Another shout-out to the impressive production design.
-Isaac is truly a chameleon. Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina) is, in my humble opinion, one of the most versatile actors moving through Hollywood today, with his uncanny ability to effectively play pretty much anyone being brought to every project he signs on to, regardless of the script quality (looking at YOU, Disney Star Wars!).
-Victor, you two timing bastard. ‘Victor’ wants to fuck his younger brothers fiance’, as portrayed by the oddly-plain Mia Goth and does almost nothing to hide this twisted carnal desire. In the end, it doesn’t go well.
-Body horror element appropriately (and amusingly) gruesome. Del Toro being Del Toro.
-Great score. Alexander Desplat, ladies and gentlemen, providing a lush, period-appropriate music score.
-A little prep goes a long way – lightning rod. This was actually kinda amusing, in a dumb way. After all of ‘Victor’s vigorous prep, he waits till the middle of a fucking thunder-and-lightning storm, at night, to physically scale his lair’s tower in order to attach the lightning rod to channel Nature’s electrical fury into his creation. Literally any slip-up at all and he would’ve just plummeted to his death. I thought the dude was supposed to be smart.
-CG fire is CG. Aw well. The one area where the $120 million budget showed its limitations. As it stands, CG flames still look like exactly what they are, and it stood out.
-Yikes, your leg is SO fucked, dude! A nasty series of explosions and an unwise decision result in a ghastly wound for ‘Victor’, and Del Toro does not shy away from showing us the meaty, spurting damage.
-Some CG animals look hokey. Wolves. Just like the flames, the computer-generated wild-life stood out like a sore thumb among the lushness of the production design.
-An educated creature. Interesting. As the flick is broken up into three chapters, the final one zeroes in on the experiences of ‘The Creature’, including the exploration of the depths of his intelligence, especially after he’s taken in by a kindly old blind man who expresses an interest in his mysterious new friends education and betterment.
-Teeth too perfect. Jacob Elordi is a good-looking Australian dude (he’d have to be, to land a sexy bombshell like fellow Aussie Margot Robbie, as rumoured at the time of this writing) and the intensive make-up used to bring ‘The Creature’ to life does not erase this fact. The big give-away for me, was buddy’s near-perfect set of chompers, which was kinda amusing in that we specifically see ‘Victor’ checking the ruined dental work of several of the prospective convicts just prior to their hangings.
-Gotta love that Del Toro gore. More brutal kills. Yes. Truth.
-Production design details and visual quality remind of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I’m a big, unapologetic fan of 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to the point where I firmly believe that it was Francis Ford Coppola’s (Apocalypse Now) last genuinely GREAT film, and a big part of that is due to the absolutely gorgeous production design and lush cinematography, only where Coppola strongly favoured deep reds and greys among the shadows, here we get the now-expected melding of vibrant golds / yellows with the cool blues / greens; a visual motif that Del Toro has successfully employed for decades now.
-‘The Creature’ is decently humanized. It’s easy to think of ‘The Creature’ as a lumbering simpleton piece of patchwork meat, given many of the classic portrayals of the ultimately tragic antagonist throughout cinematic history. Here, Del Toro taps into the fact that it’s still a human mind, albeit reanimated, trapped in that skull and he shows that ‘The Creature’ not only has the capacity for learning, it actually embraces it, showing developing intelligence and compassion along the way. Elordi brings it.
-Ending is appropriate, though feels slightly lacking. Even with the extended run-time, I still felt like I needed another 10 minutes of narrative ‘flesh’, especially in Act Three. Something, that I can’t quite put my critic’s finger on, felt missing, almost like we needed one more level of intrigue or conflict to climax on, to somehow fully round out the story. But…that’s just me. As noted, what we get IS appropriate, given the established tone and tempo.
-A beautifully shot, largely faithful version. And that, Dear Reader, about sums it up.
All in all, I got almost exactly what I expected / hoped for from this latest Del Toro offering, both in terms of narrative presentation and lush visual aesthetic. I can definitely see myself eventually revisiting Frankenstein again, if for no other reason than the little details I may have missed in the admirable production and cinematography, over the span of it’s two and a half hour run-time.
The movie is legitimately gorgeous to behold and the rather stacked cast is seemingly committed to the classic material, all led by a nuanced and slightly manic turn from the always-reliable Oscar Isaac in the lead role; a role seemingly comfortable with straddling the line between hero and villain, all the while asking appropriate questions about the natures of both along the way. The production details are terrific, the cinematography is expectedly beautiful, and the scattering of violence is gory and brutal. This is a take that definitely embraces the horror roots of the material and does so with a certain amount of R-rated glee. In short, I’m convinced Del Toro had a ball filming this one, especially with his realized insistence on practical sets and prosthetics, as opposed to the seemingly usual Netflix modus operandi of passionlessly shooting against a backdrop of screens, aka the Volume.
If you’re a fan of the original literary material, or the variety of cinematic versions spanning literally decades and appreciate the past works of Guillermo Del Toro or Oscar Isaac, I can easily recommend you search this one out. Since most of you out there will have no choice, but to stream it…try to stream it on the largest screen you can find, as the Big Screen cinematic qualities of the flick demand a Big Screen presentation…or as big a screen as you can muster. It’s worth it.
*For some reason, I now seem to have a hankering to Revisit Kenneth Branagh’s mostly-maligned 1994 adaptation, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which I have not seen since it’s first release on VHS. Could be an interesting comparison. Just sayin.
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