FILM REVIEW - Frankenstein (2025)

By The Masked Medic

For the last month, all I’ve been hearing about is this Warner Bros. deal that has been occurring. Netflix looks like it’s still on top, and despite Paramount’s best attempts to get any governing body around the world to side with it, I think Netflix will still win. What this means for Warner Bros. films is still to be seen, but in the meantime, it’s going to be interesting to see the kind of stuff that Netflix is releasing!

‘Frankenstein’ is by no means a new story. But a new retelling is always welcome. We start with a Danish ship that is stuck in the ice somewhere in the North Sea. Whilst the sailors are attempting to hack away at the ice, they stumble upon an injured man, named Victor Frankenstein. The captain takes Frankenstein to his private quarters and asks his tale of him. We see Victor’s childhood, where he is shunned by his father and adored by his mother, and after she passes, giving birth to his younger brother, William, Victor finds himself adrift emotionally. He becomes a surgeon, obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. His obscene experiments then catch the attention of Henrich Harlander, a man who states that he will pay for Victor’s work so that he may bring a corpse back to life. At the same time, he meets Elizabeth, Harlander’s niece and his brother William’s fiancée. Victor becomes enamoured with her and is desperate to impress her with his experiment. One night, the conditions are just right for Victor to perform the impossible, and he brings to life his ‘monster’. But things don’t go the way that Victor wants, and he finds that his new creation has ideas of its own. Can Victor prove to the world that he has conquered death? And just what does this Creature want?

I remember hearing a few things about this film during its production, but the cast was not one of those things. But by God, what a cast. Let’s start with the genius scientist himself, Victor Frankenstein was played by Oscar Isaac. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Oscar Isaac. He’s funny, he’s talented, he’s stylish, and very good-looking. Oscar Isaac in Dune is what I want to look like when I’m 40. He absolutely steals every scene he is in. Top quality acting. Let’s talk about Henrich Harlander, played by the indomitable Christoph Waltz. Now Waltz, despite being rated very highly, I still feel is such an underrated actor. In roles where the lines between good and bad are blurred, he plays the role well, and this was definitely one of those performances. Mia Goth plays Elizabeth, and again, a good performance there. I think she suits films in this genre generally, because she’s good at being serious and morose. I’m not sure I could imagine her in a romcom. Okay, let’s talk about the Monster in the room: Jacob Elordi. Now, I’ve not seen ‘Euphoria’, and so I had passed this sort of undeserving judgment on Elordi as one of those actors who are in popular TV shows, who doesn’t know how to act. I take it completely back. Jacob, if you’re reading this, you have garnered my interest, and I think you could be one of the greats. Please just do Heathcliff justice?

Frankenstein is a character that I think has been done so many times, and in so many forms, that I wondered if this film would be able to bring anything new to the experience. Whilst I don’t feel that viewers will take anything new away from the story, seeing alternative takes on characters we’ve seen before is certainly interesting. The film is also split into three parts, and so you see the story from several perspectives, which again I think adds to the enjoyment of watching the film. The themes that are explored are clear; get therapy people, haha. We all, in a way, share Victor’s ambition to do the impossible, and when that mission stems from a place of negative emotion, it doesn’t end well!

So naturally, Netflix has a variety of budgets, and some films get far more than others. It was clear from the get-go that ‘Frankenstein’ was one of those films. From the stellar cast to the cinematography, everything was done to the highest level of quality. It’s not surprising, given that they had the legend, Guillermo Del Toro as director. Del Toro, who is so known for creating the weird and wonderful, I think may have played this one a little tame, but it was still visually beautiful. I’d say the music was probably the only aspect of the film that I thought was average, but with a project like this, it really didn’t matter. Overall, a very good retelling of a classic!

Rating:

• Story: ★★★

• Acting: ★★★★

• Cinematography: ★★★★

• Music: ★★★

• Enjoyability: ★★★½