Frankenstein (1994) - film review

In 1794, Captain Robert Walton is leading an expedition to the North Pole when his ship becomes trapped in the ice.  As Walton and his crew attempt to free their craft, they are met by a stranger, who entreats them to help him.  The stranger, Victor Frankenstein, recounts his tragic tale.  Whilst studying anatomy at university, the young Frankenstein became interested in the creation of artificial life through electrical stimulation.  Inspired by his mentor, Professor Waldman, he began his own experiments and set about constructing his own creation from stolen body parts.  When he finally achieved his ambition, Frankenstein was revolted and resolved to abandon his research.  But his creation escaped, only to find rejection wherever it went.  When the creature discovered how it came into being, it vowed to destroy the man who brought him to life...

An ugly, lumbering beast, soulless and unnatural, calculated to inspire loathing in the hearts of all who see it - this description applies just as much to Kenneth Branagh’s overblown adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic gothic horror novel as it does to the famous creature itself.  Way in over his head and unsure what to do with his 45 million dollar budget, Branagh completely passes up a golden opportunity to deliver a film that does justice to Shelley’s novel and instead gives us a tedious potpourri of a movie (part Gothic romance, part action thriller) which wallows and drowns in its own manic excesses.   The one saving grace is Robert De Niro’s moving portrayal of the creature, which succinctly evokes the pathos of the unwanted outsider in a few memorable scenes.  Sadly, De Niro’s heart-breaking performance (assisted by an impressive make-up job) is not enough to salvage this wreck of a film.  Like Francis Ford Coppola’s over-hyped and equally inflated Dracula (1992), the film is weighed down by its artistic pretensions and irritates more than it impresses.  No wonder it was a monumental flop.  The film’s tagline "Be warned" was aptly chosen, but not for the reasons the distributors had in mind.

© Steve Chandler 2010

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