The look is right, but everything else feels off.
Frankenstein is not Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and it bears almost no resemblance to the golden-era films directed by James Whale. So what is it? A Marvel origin movie with literary set dressing. At one point, the creature approaches a ship frozen in the ocean and casually pushes it until it tilts at an angle. I ask, how does the movie expect to get away with this. Does this. Make. Sense?
In the novel, Dr. Frankenstein discusses electricity at a time when it was still a mysterious, barely understood force. That idea—later visualized by Whale with lightning bolts and switches—gave the creature a sense of stored, barely contained power. The original monster moved like an ogre, slow and heavy, as if animated by a single catastrophic surge of energy. That logic I understood. Here, the creature is absurdly strong, with no explanation beyond “because the movie needs him to be.” He isn’t just as powerful as the Incredible Hulk. The Hulk wouldn’t stand a chance. Why? What element gained the Hulk (creature) this power?
Worse, this super-strength comes bundled with what appear to be hypnosis powers, making the creature function less like Frankenstein’s monster and more like Dracula. Mia Goth’s character falls for him almost instantly after seeing him alone in a basement, walking toward him as if under a charm spell. The moment doesn’t read as romantic or tragic—it’s incoherent, stripping the creature of his horror and her of her agency. I enjoyed Pinocchio, but this belongs firmly in the category of fun-but-messy genre fare like Blade II or Hellboy. It’s entertaining, but thematically muddled. The caskets include openable windows, and why? If you said, “Because it looks super cool” then you are on the movie’s exact wavelength.
This Frankenstein favors spectacle over logic, power over consequence, and superhero mythmaking over Gothic dread. It mostly gets the look of Mary Shelley’s novel correct, but by way of Marvel.
6/10
Avidavr: Media Reviews 