When I first heard news that Guillermo Del Toro was making a new Frankenstein movie, I was very “meh” about it. If you think about it, I’m sure you can come up with a lot of Frankenstein movies. Officially there is no accurate count of them, because the concept is so prevalent in visual media. Unofficially there are over 400 movies that are Frankenstein adjacent. Some are more direct than others. But take the Munsters, the father figure of the series is a Frankenstein character. Up through 1953 there had been about 20 movies with Frankenstein, and 2 of those were Abbott and Costello!

So even though I find Del Toro to be a fantastic creative mind, the idea of yet another Frankenstein movie didn’t do much for me. Then I heard that the movie was going to be 2 parts. Sort of. Not like two separate movies, but that the first half of the movie would be the normal “It’s Alive!” story. And then the other half would be “after.” Whatever that meant. 

So now I’m intrigued. Because I kinda don’t care who you are as a director, we don’t need another Frankenstein origin story. But “after”…. Now that has me intrigued. 

And then somehow it was on streaming what felt like two weeks after it was in theaters. And my Friday night became consumed by the latest Frankenstein. (A bizarre side note to this is that apparently Del Toro has been wanting to do this movie his whole career, and in many ways every movie he has made was leading to this. Many of them being variations on Frankenstein. Having finally made this one, there is talk that he may be done with “monster” movies. Which would be a shame, in my opinion.)

The movie actually starts at the halfway point. A Russian ship is stuck in the ice as it tries to make it to the North Pole. As the crew is trying to break free of the ice, there is an explosion out deeper into the icy wasteland. When they investigate, they find a wounded man. Victor Frankenstein. And a monstrous creature chasing him. They take him aboard the ship as the creature attacks. The captain manages to break the ice beneath the creature sending him into the sea. And here we are about 10 minutes in and I already have a bit of an issue. The scene where the ice is breaking beneath his feet plays out so slowly that the creature is practically wanting to go in the water. Staring and looking as the ice creaks and cracks. Staring and looking more as it starts breaking. But not once taking the very simple step of just moving 5 feet to his left. Instead, the monster plummets…

Inside the cabin, the Captain hears the story of Victor. Telling what we know about how the creature was brought to life. And some parts of this were fascinating. As we get a little bit of behind the scenes look at the work that went into it all before he tried the “big one.” We have back story of a man who wants to fund Victor with the offer of unlimited money. Turns out that man’s daughter is engaged to Victor’s brother Will. Elizabeth has a dark side to her and she is much more intrigued by the macabre work Victor is engaged in. The man who is funding him has a secret though, he is dying and wants to have his brain put in the new body.

So we have quite a bit of deviation from the story as Mary Shelley wrote it. Fluffing it out. Taking it to new territory and introducing new elements. While this was interesting, it also stretched it out. A lot. This movie is long. 150 minutes (still about half an hour shorter than Titanic though.) And it feels long. As we meander through the story and finally get back to the ship where we are going to get the second half of the movie. Wait? I’m only halfway through it? Damn. 

But before getting to the second half, there is an important part of the first half. Victor is cruel. Specifically to the creature he brought to life. Which feels wrong. He spent so much time being meticulous about figuring out how to bring him to life. So much time lovingly stitching him together. A point that Del Toro wanted to make important. Del Toro felt that a man who spent so much time and effort into this wouldn’t then be haphazard in how he stitched the creature together. And I agree with that. It makes sense. But then to have Victor be cruel and callous to the creature he brought life to seems to directly fly in the face of that. And this brings up an interesting aspect because the design of the creature is pretty cool. And the actor portraying him, Jacob Elordi, did a really good job in the role. To be fair, Oscar Isaacs did great as Victor, and Mia Goth was really good in the role of Elizabeth. The acting in this was really good on all counts.

Back to the second half. As the creature makes his way back to the icy surface, he re-engages with the Russian sailors. Proclaiming loudly that he wants Victor. Turn him over and nobody else will get hurt. The sailors are down for it, but the captain interrupts the idea. Telling the creature that he now knows Victor’s story about what happened and who the creature is. The creature decides to tell the captain his own story. 

And now we find out about how the creature survived when Victor tried to kill him. But we also find out that the creature is unkillable. No wound can stop him or kill him. We see him shot several times, but the wound heals. He is effectively immortal. The explosion was actually the creature holding a stick of dynamite that Victor had lit. And even that had no impact on him. Which was kinda silly really. Surviving a bullet wound is one thing. Not drowning is another. But being blown up and instantly being “still whole”… Makes no sense. And yeah, this may be me not buying into it. Long ago in the movie Darkman (by Sam Raimi starring Liam Neeson) they gave him an ability. His pain receptors no longer worked, so he felt zero pain. He used this to go into situations where he had no chance of survival. The problem is, it doesn’t matter if the bullets don’t hurt, they still do damage. And that damage will still make you die. Impervious to pain isn’t unkillable! So the creature being unkillable is one thing. Recovering from a bullet wound is one thing, but it took him time to heal. Then in a scene where wolves attack him, it takes him a bit of time to become whole again. Somehow though, after the dynamite explodes, the creature simply takes off running in pursuit of Victor. 

The creature’s story centers around him trying to fit in with the world and finding the world sees him as a monster and always will. He wants two things from Victor. Revenge. And a mate. Having realized that he can never find happiness in the world, he decides he needs a being like himself for companionship. And only Victor can give him that. 

The second half of this movie was also long. And it’s never good to be watching a movie and keep thinking about how long it feels.

I can’t say that there isn’t anything worthwhile about the movie. If you need a way to kill about 3 hours, this is a good way to do it. But seriously, the movie is visually stunning. The acting is fantastic for Elizabeth, Victor, and Frankenstein’s Monster. 

But ultimately, Del Toro didn’t really do anything new or meaningful here. My barometer of “Do I want this DVD on my shelf” rings out loudly with a no. I can’t imagine ever watching this a second time. 

Was this a bad movie? No. Not really. And there is a massive audience out there that is younger than me. A group of people that haven’t lived through multiple Frankenstein releases. There is absolutely an audience for this, and I imagine it will be quite well liked by many. And I realize that my issues with it are very personal. But that is the nature of giving opinions. I’m sure there are a ton of people that this movie resonates with and for them it will likely be a 9 star rating. I don’t dispute that for them. But for me, this falls well short of a 9. My personal enjoyment of the movie lands at a 4. Giving it a rating outside just my perspective though, I’ll rest on a 6 star rating.