Melton1 — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 07:33 AM)

I’ve never been much of a Guillermo fan - he’s an impressive visionary but his films have always been too garish and overblown for my tastes (and Pan’s Labyrinth was grotesque in its nasty political propagandising), but Frankenstein really clicked for me.
The opening had me worried, the image was very synthetic looking, almost Pixar with the use of digital photography and clearly drenched in digital effects and unnatural color timing. But it was an undeniably beautiful image, and it wasn’t long before I was seduced by the look of the film.
This is a half hour longer than Branagh’s version but it feels half an hour shorter, the pacing is superb. It rattles along but spends plenty of time drinking up the performances of the excellent cast. Isaac nails Victor F. He’s like the asshole version of Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes but still likeable enough to keep him relatable.
Mia Goth, Christoph Walz, Charles Dance all crush, and guess what? No forced diversity! This is a landmark moment - a huge Netflix movie with the budget of a small country that was unashamedly and appropriately white. This should be ****ing obvious for a British period piece but we’ve been living in Wokeworld for many years now, thankfully that time is ending. No blacks and browns were forced into this film. For the first time in a long time, I was able to sink into a great story without the constant distraction of obnoxious social engineering and racist propaganda.
Special mention to Jacob Elordi who does a great job as The Monster. I prefer De Niro because he was uglier and more credible - this monster is a tad too pretty (and can recover T-1000 style which I’m not sure about) but the acting is superb, the big-hearted wretch can’t catch a break and you feel for him all the way. His eyes always have a kindness.
I haven’t read the original story so I don’t know if and how this deviates. The Monster is way more sympathetic here than in Branagh’s, in which the hulk suddenly rips the heart out of a major female character at one point, and we had a full horror ending with notes of Bride Of Frankenstein. This one goes for a warmer ending with sequel potential, which worked for the story.
Easily Guillermo’s best film and it could be up for an Oscar, unless the anti-white qualification rules are still in place. Who knows, if Netflix can abandon Woke, maybe Oscar can too…