Frankenstein's Monstrosity
After the death of Dr Victor Frankenstein his creation ends up in the Cathedral where the Order of Gargoyles resides as he is set upon by demons after burying his master. With the Queen of the Gargoyles Leonore (Miranda Otto) taking possession of Dr. Frankenstein's journal she names the monster Adam (Aaron Eckhart) and asks him to help in their war against the evil demons. But Adam wants none of it and goes in to hiding for 200 years until the demons eventually find him and force him to enter the modern world and take the fight to the demons. As Adam discovers, the evil Naberius (Bill Nighy) is attempting to build an army of corpses with Terra (Yvonne Strahovski) a scientist attempting to create life with Naberius needing Frankenstein's journal to give her the answers.
So let's turn Frankenstein's monster into a brooding dark hero, a man who walks the streets alone fighting evil when he must and who finds himself in the midst of a centuries old battle between Gargoyles and Demons. I think if I was a 15 year old teenager I might go for that I might even enjoy "I, Frankenstein" with Aaron Eckhart playing the tortured soul by the name of Adam who seems to have gained a lot of super hero style abilities when he fights bad guys, not to mention a seriously buff body. But it's been a long time since I had to worry about spots and raging hormones and sadly "I, Frankenstein" did little for me.
I suppose the trouble with "I, Frankenstein" is that it is pitched with a visual loving audience in mind rather than those who enjoy a good story. As such you do have an extremely fit looking Aaron Eckhart who even with a scarred face is handsome, we also have Jai Courtney with his ripped muscles, we have a semi gothic look to the modern world and a lot of CGI enhanced special effects. Plus there is Bill Nighy basically playing the character of Naberius in that typically matter of fact, quirkily charming, quintessentially Bill Nighy sort of way. In truth Bill Nighy is the best thing about "I, Frankenstein" even though the humorous tone of Nighy's performance doesn't quite feel right for this sort of movie. But everything is about the look and as such it left me wanting some sort of storyline which I hadn't encountered before
What this all boils down to is that "I, Frankenstein" probably does entertain a young audience who enjoy the super hero nature of Aaron Eckhart as a brooding version of Frankenstein's monster. But once you get past the visual nature of "I, Frankenstein" the story is not that interesting and the characterisations are forced to the point that every time we hear Adam whisper something in a growl he might as well be saying "I am Batman".
