Especially since I had my name legally changed, and had my name changed through the university. So there is no reason that name should even still exist.
Aight so I saw Del Toro's Frankenstien and I have THOUGHTS.
overall, not a bad movie for movies sake. Solid like 7-8/10 movie wise.
Relationship to the source material though... Whoo boy. The Creature finally has his story told delicately and empathetically on screen like never before. The tenderness with which he is handled was very well done. But... I fear the man missed the entire point of the book with how he ended the movie.
Some... Interesting changes to characters/relationships, some of which I understand for a screen adaptation. But there are no children really in the movie, stripping away the so important parallels to innocence and growth that come from the book. William is a full on grown adult engaged to Elizabeth??? Didn't really like that.
Now, The Creature's design is INCREDIBLE. It's perfectly horrifying in the way Shelly describes in the book. The beauty of humanity in a grotesque and impossible vessel. The Creature's story is done so gently, a real love letter to the book that The Creature has never gotten on screen before. I would have loved to see that expanded on, with the scenes with the little flower girl and little William. And his intentional targetting of those Victor loves.
Speaking of Victor. Oscar Isaac does a phenomenal job with the character, how crazed and passionate he is. The story of young Victor is far too much about Daddy issues, in my opinion. And the relationships between William and Victor and Elizabeth are completely rewritten in a not great way imo. Beyond having William be grown up, the fact that he is a foil for Victor is very odd. The opposing natures of the two feel very forced, and not in line with the story--the innocence and love that William is meant to represent. And then Elizabeth. Her and Victor's relationship from childhood onward is so devistatingly important to the characterization of Victor Frankenstein in the novel, and it's just not there in the movie. Sure, some things needed to be tweaked for the screen adaptation, but removing the depth of their relationship entirely from it was a wrong choice in my opinion. There's also this weird psudeo romance between Elizabeth and The Creature that Del Toro throws in there for some reason too that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's... odd.
Cinematography and visual metaphor are out of this world, very on brand for Del Toro. It's worth a watch alone just for some of the shots, and how colour and material become such an intricate part of the storytelling and metaphor. CGI is not great, they should have stuck to practical effects for some things for sure, that's more my mans wheelhouse anyway. I'm hoping that was a Netflix decision and not a Guillermo decision.
Personally, I got a little taken out of it near the end of Victor's side of the story, due to some of the character and relationship changes. But, I was quickly drawn back in by The Creature. Again, his story is told in a way it never has been on screen. You feel for him. You hurt with him. And that holds pretty steady until the last 2-5 minutes of the movie.
Like straight up maybe the last 2-5 minutes of the movie Del Toro just drops the ball on the entire fucking message Mary Shelly was imparting in the book. Spoiler: The Creatures forgives Victor. And I'm SO SAD. Because, really, it's a p good movie. And it does justice to The Creature that has NEVER been done on screen. Only to ruin it like that. And at a time like this, where we are walking along the same lines as Victor Frankenstein with AI, I think it's fully irrisponsible and disrespectful to change the ending like that. To change the message and the meaning like that. I get the fairytale story teller in Guillermo, I do. But Mary Shelly is rolling in her grave. All that metaphor and pain and meaning completely thrown away in like 2 lines of dialogue. Completely ruins the illusion of the movie at the very end.
Ugh fucking men sometimes.
OH AND, after the last shot, which is cinematographically gorgeous and feels very true to the novel, the screen goes black and then there's a Lord Byron quote??? Like. Dude. C'mon, really? Mary Shelly and the whole book are RIGHT THERE. Why are we giving more men the spotlight in this woman's work??
Overall, due to my love of the source material, it's a 5/10 movie for me. Maybe even a 4.5. I think if there has been a woman in the Writers room and as a co-director it could have been just that much better. It's a visually stunning movie. I love what it does with The Creature's design and story. I think the acting is really good. But I think the whole message of Mary Shelly's work is ultimately lost in favor of a fairytale that this story just isn't, and was never meant to be.
