Frankenstein's Review

The film reproduces faithfully the romantic, passionate and tragic sense of Mary Shelley’s novel. According to some sources, it is one of the most similar versions adapted for screen to the original book; thought, the differences among them are noticeable. The famous names which are closely related to the movie (Francis Ford Coppola as producer, Kennegh Branagh as the director, the prominent actor Robert de Niro as the beast) and a budget of 45 million dollars, reveal an ambitious project to make a successful production, trying to show the story not only to horror’s novels lovers but also to medium Hollywood movies viewer. Nevertheless, this project failed, unless in the USA where its performance was poor, but the takings in the global market were much better (over 90 million dollars).

The intention of its creators was plain: to reproduce Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, intending to keep it far from horror creatures of other versions, in which the beast was an evil monster without any feeling or thought, preserving a message of maintenance of the delicate equilibrium between nature and man desires of controlling it. Furthermore, fatalism and human passions are omnipresent elements. Romanticism struggles against every sign of horror or, providing justifications to actions or unless clues to comprehend behaviors. Moreover, viewers make a journey among the seas of human psychic to relate it with real life. The science and its inaccurate use by men are guided in the same direction to criticize such action, standing out values as ethic, showing the need to reflect about the appropriate and non-appropriate purposes of scientists.

Kenneth Branagh carries out a believable performance as his partner Helena Bomham- Carter, who shares the same passion towards her character. Both of them spare no effort to demonstrate how committed they are with the project so that the viewer is capable of analyzing the deepness of their feelings and going through their own souls. Robert de Niro, as the beast, does his best in order to grab the viewer’s attention and gets close to its soul, taking all the tools that the character can provide, but he does not totally succeed. Unfortunately, his brightness cannot be seen this time, so we just can obtain an acceptable performance of him. A surprise arises with Tom Hulce, as Henry, Victor’s best friend, who can take advantage of his acting. The same happens to Aidan Quinn as Capital Robert Walton, in spite of appearing just in a few but intense scenes.

The film and its characters do everything as possible to transmit their strong feelings towards the story and they almost fulfill this aim. After all, is it impossible to finish watching the movie without any reflection, idea or opinion? Apart from that, visual effects like the appearance of the beast and the journey across the North Pole contribute to give the correct dose of science fiction movie mixed with drama.

Finally, if I had to give

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