To dispel any speculation as to whether I, Frankenstein will do the classic science fiction novel by Mary Shelley any justice, the answer is no. Thankfully, this movie is instead based on a graphic novel of the same name. I found the backstory to this film to be more interesting than the film itself. The graphic novel I, Frankenstein and its script were written by Kevin Grevioux, an actor, screenwriter and comic book writer. Although he is probably best known to audiences for his role as Raze in the Underworld series, his writing credits on that film deserve the most accolades.
Unfortunately, I, Frankenstein follows a lot of the same aesthetic patterns and storyline choices that the Underworld movies did. I believe him to be a great storyteller, as the idea of the movie is a compelling one, though perhaps the execution of this film was not the greatest.
I, Frankenstein is the story of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, Adam (an interesting if not somewhat cliché name, since he is the first of his kind). The film attempts to tell the story of Frankenstein’s monster as it would play out in the modern age.
Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Battle: Los Angeles, Olympus Has Fallen) plays the title role, Adam. Eckhart’s performance as the jaded monster is decent although not particularly memorable. Sadly, this is true for all the characters in this movie—not bad and relatively convincing but overall lacking in depth. Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck, Dexter) plays the beautiful, well-meaning scientist who, frankly, doesn’t do all that much. We learn nothing about her backstory or why she is a doctor of electrophysiology, aside from the cliché, “scientific curiosity.” Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, War of the Worlds) portrays the queen of the gargoyles and, while she is good, again, very little goes into her character that connects with the audience. Finally, there is Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Love Actually), who plays Naberius, the dark demon prince. While I believe him to be an amazing actor , the crux of this villain is that he is missing one vital part to his character—he isn’t scary, not even a little bit.
Although the movie was only an hour and a half, it was largely plot driven and lacked an overall depth that made anything that could be considered “character development” or “subplot” as just relatively meaningless filler that moved the movie from point A to point B; from stylized fight scene to stylized fight scene.
The fascinating imagery of the movie does save it from being a complete bore. Dark and gothic and yet, for lack of a better word, strangely beautiful. The battles between good and evil were eerily artistic and looked fantastic on screen. Nothing beats demons bursting into volcanic-esque fire. However, the visuals here don’t really compare to the similar ones featured in Underworld.
Overall, this movie was mediocre. Pretty to look at, not terrible to sit through, but definitely not worth seeing in 3D or even at regular price.
Claire Farrow can be reached at claire.farrow@spartans.ut.edu