Frankenstein (dir. Guillermo del Toro)

By: Adam Freed

If one thing remains static within Netflix productions, it is that there is no sign of budgetary concern.  What is concerning however, for the mega studio’s soon-to-be released Guillermo del Toro directed Frankenstein, is how little of the auteur director’s style translates through the green screen and CG presentation of the classic monster story. Renowned for the dynamism and quality of his past creature-based works like Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and Best Picture Winner The Shape of Water, del Toro seems reduced to the confines of painting with another artist’s brushes.  Despite an array of confusing choices, Frankenstein provides enough to celebrate to avoid relegation into the land of the year’s disappointing films.

At the foreground of laudability over Guillermo del Toro’s faithful adaptation to Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel are dual leads Jacob Elordi, and Oscar Isaac.  It is the young Elordi (Priscilla, Saltburn) who through his unrecognizable prosthetic transformation offers a dynamic performance as the Frankenstein monster, which in less capable hands may have been rendered predictable and cliché.  To pull off the irascible volatility of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, del Toro needed to lean on the stability of a strong leading man, which the Mexican director finds in abundance in Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex Machina).  As Isaac’s Frankenstein and Elordi’s monster come to faithful fruition, audiences will enjoy momentary glimpses of a volatile dynamic not captured on screen since Colin Clive and Boris Karloff nearly a century ago.

As much hype as Frankenstein is bound to receive given its star power and supercharged platform, the film does itself few favors with its 150 minute run time.  Guillermo del Toro offers fans a full meal with his latest work, a meal that is best consumed in the largest format available.  Once Frankenstein hits Netflix, its consumption on phones and in distraction-rich environments is all but certain to lead to an audience reduced to half-attention given the amount of dialogue-driven exposition present.  Between the film’s overly-stuffed length and confounding reliance on mediocre CG, anticipation for the banquet of Frankenstein is certain to outweigh satisfaction with its succulence.

Target Score 5.5/10: There are a small collection of moments in Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein reimagining where the brilliant filmmaker approaches his career apex, but those moments are few and fleeting in a production burdened by its reliance on unconvincing action and landscape imagery.  If one squints at the bulky production, there is a slightly visible silhouette of success, but certainly not enough to render the Netflix film as one of the marquee entries in the filmography of the gifted filmmaker. 

Frankenstein is included in Movie Archer's coverage of the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.