Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Frank's Wild Years

I, Frankenstein: adapted by Stuart Beattie and Kevin Grevioux from the graphic novel by Kevin Grievioux based on characters and situations created by Mary Shelley; directed by Stuart Beattie; starring Aaron Eckhart (Adam Frankenstein), Yvonne Strahovski (Terra), Miranda Otto (Leonore), and Bill Nighy (Naberius) (2013): Jesus, what a crazy movie. It's like someone got drunk during a Gargoyles marathon, passed out, woke up during a showing of Blade 2, and was convinced that this was all the same narrative.

I sort of love it.

It's short, just a couple of ticks over 90 minutes. The CGI is occasionally crazy-bad (never moreso than in the opening shots of snow-topped mountains that look less realistic than the Alliance Films logo). Aaron Eckhart remains totally invested in his character throughout, which must have been difficult given the looniness of the script. He invests the Creature with a poignance that the writers didn't bother with.

And there's so much exposition in both voiceover narration and conversations among characters that sections of the movie feel like plot synopses for a longer, better movie. There are so many stupid things here that telling you about them would ruin the fun. But I was quite entertained, certainly moreso than with a lot of much bigger-budgeted blockbuster CGI fests. Weirdly recommended.

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