A good movie

When I heard that ‘Frankenstein’ would be Guillermo Del Toro’s next project, to be honest, I had some mixed feelings. Indeed, sure, this material did sound perfect for the Mexican master but, on the other hand, I have already seen so many versions of this classic tale. Eventually, it was exactly what I felt when I watched this movie. Sure, it turned out to be a solid adaptation, no doubt about it, but did it really give us some new insights about this story? Not really, I’m afraid. The biggest variation was to make Elizabeth being Victor’s sister-in-law when, in most versions, she is actually his wife. Sure, it was intriguing but it wasn’t really such a fascinating addition though. The fact that it was really long (except for some obscure TV feature from the 70’s, it is the longest version ever made) probably didn’t help. On the other hand, I liked the prelude properly developing Victor Frankenstein’s background and the two tales of both men/monsters telling their side of the story was pretty cool as well. It was also a really gorgeous movie, probably the most beautiful movie delivered by Del Toro so far. Concerning the casting, it was pretty top-notch (Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth), especially Isaac and Elordi who were quite awesome playing the mad scientist and his creature. Del Toro also went for a gentle and poetic approach to portray the monster and it really worked very well thanks to Elordi giving his best performance so far. And, yet, as usual with this director, something was missing though. Maybe it was something similar to Peter Jackson’s ‘King Kong’? Indeed, in both cases, these directors were dreaming their whole life of delivering their own versions but, except for them, did anyone else needed or wanted to see yet another take on these classic stories? To be honest, I’m not so sure. Anyway, to conclude, even if it felt like another unnecessary adaptation, Del Toro definitely loved the material and delivered a gorgeous picture so it is really worth a look, especially if you are interested in this director’s work.