I, Frankenstein (2014)
Certified: 12
Duration: 92 minutes
Directed by: Stuart Beattie
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto, Socratis Otto, Jai Courtney, Kevin Grevioux, Steve Mouzakis, Aden Young, Deniz Akdeniz, Virginie Le Brun
KRS release
In the late 1700s, Dr Victor Frankenstein (Aden Young) makes science history: he uses electricity to give life where there was none. The subject is a human body that was sown together from different parts of eight corpses.
The resulting creature, called Adam (Aaron Eckhart), clashes with his creator and escapes. He gets caught in a war that has been going on for centuries, a conflict between heaven and hell, and he is chased by the creatures that inhabit them: demons and gargoyles.
Dark Prince Naberius (Bill Nighy) leads the denizens of hell as he tries to discover the secret of Frankenstein’s science and so create an army out of the human corpses in his possession. He brings in a human scientist called Terra (Yvonne Strahovski) to work on the theories of Dr Frankenstein.
On the other side, Queen Leonore (Miranda Otto), who leads the gargoyles, considers Adam as a creature without a soul. But she wants to have his strength and speed on her side as a final battle between good and evil looms on the horizon.
Adam ends up facing both sides’ top commanders: Zuriel (Socratis Otto) and Gideon (Jai Courtney).
Everything is turned upside down when it becomes known that Leonore has the manual of Dr Frankenstein. The demons want it but Adam wants it too as this could give him all the answers to his questions about his origins.
I, Frankenstein is promoted as being from the same producers of The Underworld franchise. In a way, this accurately depicts the movie, its existence and also its aspiration.
The film looks and feels almost as if it were an extension of The Underworld franchise, with the differences being the replacing of the delectable Kate Beckinsale with Aaron Eckhart’s role and replacing vampires and werewolves with gargoyles and demons.
In its essence, this is a B-movie where actors strike poses and special effects take centre stage. This is made more evident by Bill Nighy’s delicious over-the-top turn, the Van Helsing-styled action sequences, the self-aware seriousness delivered by Eckhart, Otto’s straight-faced performance and Strahovski’s sexy presence.
The interesting premise itself is comic bookish and brings to the Frankenstein myth a different slant than anything delivered in the classic Boris Karloff movies or the Hammer films of the 1970s.
Stuart Beattie, who had screenwriting duties on films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), 30 Days of Night (2007) and G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (2009), here makes his directorial debut. It is immediately evident that he tries to cram everything into the film, which keeps it chugging with videogame-mode action pacing and over-the-top sequencing.
CGI effects are played to overkill status as angels and demons explode and battle all over the place to fan-boy delight.
Overall, I, Frankenstein was made not with the Mary Reilly novel in mind but for fans of videogame action, the Underworld franchise and B-movies in general. Sharpen your razors.