[title]
Oh, the horror! What in hell were the makers of this monstrosity thinking? They’ve looked at Mary Shelley’s science fiction masterpiece (written when she was 19 in 1818) and thought: Hmm, something’s missing here. Oh yes, it’s the big-action, hyperactive, over-the-topness-ness of Robert Downey Jr’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ movies.
The film is told from the point of view of Frankenstein’s assistant Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), a hunchback raised in the circus. The most interesting thing about the character is his hair, which goes from fingers-in-the-socket fright-wig to Anna Wintour bob after he’s busted out of the carnival by cocky medical student Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy). Making Igor his righthand man, Victor’s playing-God project starts badly when he brings to life a psychotic rampaging monkey-monster stitched together from pieces filched from zoos.
Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy mostly keep ‘Victor Frankenstein’ watchable, but the dialogue is a horror show. (Radders is lumbered with a ‘little did I know I was about to meet the man who would change my life’ narration). And you might need a thunderclap to keep you awake in the yawn-iest bits.