I, Frankenstein

I saw a preview for this movie in theaters awhile back. I remember thinking, that kind of looks like the newer Resident Evil films. But then I saw Aaron Eckhart and remembered he was a good actor, so I figured I would give it a chance. A redbox rental is pretty cheap after all. I went into this hoping for something on the level of the recent Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters. It seemed like a pretty acceptable bar to set, not great but not garbage. So either I apparently liked Witch Hunters more then I remember, or I, Frankenstein really was just that bad. The movie had all the right ingredients to me passable, it just failed to use them properly.

The story is nothing like the Frankenstein I remember, but that should have worked in its favor. The monster is born, and he is cast out. Frankenstein did not love him, and that was something the monster did not know how to deal with. So he kills Frankenstein's new wife out of hate. The Dr then chases the monster into the wild, however he is unable to deal with the cold, and freezes to death. The monster then decides to bury his father in his families grave plot. While doing this he is attacked by demons, and then rescued by Gargoyles. Yeah Gargoyles, they are apparently angels in this movie. The Monster is given the name of Adam, which I believe was his name in the original Frankenstein writings. The gargoyles ask him to help them in in their holy war against he demons.

So far not a bad start. We have a fresh take on a old story, and a set up for some good action. As a fan of the Underworld movies, I don't need great scripts to enjoy myself. I just need to see some good monster action and killer fight scenes. So when Bill Nighy and Kevin Grevioux show up, both from Underworld, I got very excited. Bill Nighy is the perfect villain, and he did great with what he was given. He is the leader of the demon faction, and came off as a total bad ass. Grevioux appeared to be his second in command, but he never really got to do to much in the movie. When you have such a great talker like Nighy, you really don't spoil it by giving others those lines. So where does the movie go wrong? Well Aaron Eckhart was a major factor in that.

Eckhart is a good actor, we have seen him deliver great performances before. So seeing him in this film is simply baffling. He was awful in it, no emotion and he seemed very amateurish. It was like he wasn't trying, or just didn't care about it. Since he is the main character, having him just bring pretty much every scene down is a huge problem. He does alright with the action sequences, but any time he tries to talk and convey something important, it just falls apart. I was supposed to see him go from this murderous monster, to a hero. We are supposed to see that he cared for Frankenstein, and he is trying to find out about his past. But he never comes off as believable, so we never come to care for him. I would have actually been fine with Nighy killing him in the end, and the demons winning. They were oddly more likable then the heroes.

The effects were also lacking, though not horrible. Demons die, and instead of blood and guts, they turn into fire and fly off into the sky. It looked neat the first time, but it just got annoying and distracting as the movie goes on. We have a few large scale battles, but instead of actually showing anything, the screen is filled with raising fire and blue light. The blue light is a gargoyle dying, or ascending into heaven. When a demon dies, it is called "Descending." The gargoyles do look neat, but in no way do they look real. And the battle sequences with them just look and feel cheap. I can understand why they would transform to fight, the stone form would be much stronger. But when they fight in the Human form, it just looked better and made for a better scene. The gargoyles are not the only ones that looked disappointing however. The demon form also looked rather poor. Your demons should look scary, not silly. It takes away from any soft of menace they had.

So I, Frankenstein, somehow not worth the $1.25 to rent it. A good setup for a monster fight movie, that just fails to deliver. It has a established quality actor in both its lead Villain and Hero role, and still it fails to do anything with them. The story is not developed, and it seems as if the movie goes out of its way to not further it. No real emotion is every used, and we never come to care about the Monster Adam. My original assumption that this would be similar to the later Resident Evil films was sadly correct. If you liked the last one of those, you may enjoy this. But for most viewer, it is simply not worth your time.