[Movie Review] Victor Frankenstein (2015)
Director: Paul McGuigan
Writer: Max Landis
Runtime: 110 min
Main Cast:
- Daniel Radcliffe as Igor
- Andrew Scott as Roderick Turpin
- James McAvoy as Victor Von Frankenstein
- Mark Gatiss as Dettweiler
Review: by Chris
Told from the perspective of Igor, learn the beginnings of Victor Frankensteins obsession with creating life. We see the titular mad scientist as a young physicist building his way up to the famous literally creature. Igor and young Victor form a bond, one based in science but molded in obsession. Igor wants so bad to help Victor achieve is lofty ambitions, but at what cost?
What I Liked:
The perspective change. Usually, the Frankenstein story is told from the perspective of Victor himself, but in this film we see it all through the eyes of Igor. It gives great backstory to the origins of their relationship as well as makes Igor a very interesting character, rather than the lowly assistant.
The acting. Whoa….talk about surprising. James McAvoy gives a FANTASTIC turn as Victor. Almost every scene he is in, he steals the show. Outside of some liberal story changes, this is maybe the best modern iteration of the character. His rage, his subtle ticks/nuances….some very good acting for a movie like this. Though Frankenstein is younger, we see some amazing moments of the crazed mad scientist of the original Mary Shelly classic, but we also learn some of the reasons behind the madness. Some great, powerful moments between Victor and Igor, as well as a surprising guest star as Frankenstein’s father. Same with Igor, their chemistry on screen is one of the best things about this film and is almost worth the viewing.
Surprisingly serious. The 2nd act (outside of some subplots which I will get into later) was great. It became a serious drama about the fallbacks of obsession, Frankenstein true motivations and past get slowly revealed and you root for him.
What I Didn’t Like:
This movie is all over the place. Outside of the interesting and sometimes great main story we have 2 other lazily added plots that add very little to the film. Igor’s romantic interest does nothing except to give him a reason to leave Frankenstein’s side and conveniently just show up to react to something. She has no real motivations of her own and only exists to be Igor’s lazy moral compass. The other plot involving a master detective begins interesting at first, with his madness mirroring Frankenstein’s but all that goes out the window in act 3 and he just turns into Bad guy #023. Both of these plots take away from the more interesting plot regarding Frankenstein and Igor, their relationship and their future.
Weird and poor action sequences. You remember when I stated that the trailers made it look like a poor man’s Sherlock Holmes? Well, the first action scene looked exactly like that, from the awkward title sequence that made me laugh out loud, to the terrible slow motion. Luckily for us and the film we don’t see anymore of that until the end, and it’s another out of place action scene. The last one was fine in context, but it felt off considering how serious things were up to that point.
Summary
This was a weird movie for me. I generally enjoyed some aspects of it and it surprised me how well McAvoy and Radcliffe sold the characters and how well that story was told. But the boring subplots took constantly took the steam out of the film, halting the momentum. I found myself bored or groaning only to be back into the movie once McAvoy hit the screen again. A model C student with great potential but too many flaws.
User Review
( votes)Images Courtesy of IMDB
