Director: Stuart Beattie
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Yvonne Strahoski, Miranda Otto, Bill Nighy, Jai Courtney, Socratis Otto, Caitlin Stasey, Mahesh Jadu, Aden Young
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Certificate: 12
I, FRANKENSTEIN feels like the UNDERWORLD spin-off nobody asked for. From its use of popular horror characters, the night time city setting, the never ending rain, and the casting of Bill Nighy; the entire film feels as though it belongs in that very universe, while at the same time making you wish you were watching that flawed but superior series.
I, FRANKENSTEIN follows Frankenstein’s monster, Adam (Eckhart) as he searches for a purpose in life. A purpose is soon thrust upon him as he becomes the targets of demons, as demons like to possess the bodies of those without a soul. Joining Adam in this battle is a group of angels known as gargoyles, who have been battling the demons for centuries. The plot is wafer thin and despite being stretched over centuries, goes nowhere. The title hints at some sort of journey of self discovery, as Frankenstein’s monster looks for the meaning to his bizarre circumstances, but all we get instead are some very lazy action sequences that look ripped from a PS2 game.
Failing to draw out any emotion of which we could connect with, Eckhart fumbles around with clunky dialogue. One-liners are copy and pasted from Generic Screenplay Writer 2000 (possibly a real product), leaving audiences’ foreheads red and swelled with the amount of times they end up slapping their heads in disbelief. The supporting cast are no better, with many of the actors just as indistinguishable as their CGI created supernatural counterparts. During battle sequences it just looks like a mess of pixels flying around the screen.
There’s a point where you forget this is supposed to be a Frankenstein film. Despite being about teh search for a soul, Eckhart looks like, well, Aaron Eckhart with a few scatches. This hardly results in any sympathy for the traditionally tragic character. As Bill Nighy spits out his lines in a half-arsed performance as the film’s villain, it becomes one of those films that is an actual chore to sit through. When those involved seem so uninvolved, it becomes rather insulting that they’d expect an audience to care.
[usr=1]I, FRANKENSTEIN is released on DVD and Blu-ray from 26th May.
