A sexy creature by Aaron Eckhart, “I, Frankenstein” 이렇게도 서정적인 프랑켄슈타인

Photos by frankenstein.brandsbox.co.kr

New to DVD and very much alive, you’ll probably wish he wasn’t after sitting through this dim witted offering. Highly versed in the art of ass-kicking, a beefed up Aaron Eckhart stars as a distinctive version of Dr. Frankenstein’s creation. The movie comes with a bit of a modern day twist, as Frankenstein’s creature finds itself wedged in between gargoyle and demon hostilities. Eckhart does his utmost to sell us the story of this tormented soul, but only the always excellent Bill Nighy, playing a demonic mogul, successfully delivers.

One can’t help but wonder if, before signing up for this horror story (as in the horror of no credibility ), Eckhart had a gut feeling that he was helping create an incurably, imprudent motion picture. How times of changed, from making the best decision in his professional career – agreeing to play the ultimately-horrifically-disfigured Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent in “The Dark Knight,” to this, possibly his worst role to date. And it doesn’t take a genius to realize that it was Eckhart’s performance in Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece that gave the makers of “I, Frankenstein,” the ill advised stimulation to cast Eckhart as the gruesome creation of horror tradition.

The unintentional comedy kicks in very early, actually, as soon as the intro. From the beginning, the monster speaks, and we are given what at first seems a trivial modification of the Shelley original. You know the story, Frankenstein is suffering from deep psychological misgivings, he is a murderer, he’s neurotic and doesn’t trust a soul. Hold on, bet you didn’t see the following twist coming; as the hideous creature is burying a victim, he’s challenged by a multitude of demons who want to abduct him for reasons that are pretty brainless. The comedy continues when Eckhart is rescued by a gargoyle that soars down to partake in a pointless mêlée.

All this nonsense coupled with opulently pedestrian production design, plenty of average CGI-action scenes, and, most notably, substandard dialog. The creation of a creature that exists somewhere amid the human world and one inhabited by the deceased, the ridiculously named Adam Frankenstein finds himself an unwanted enemy in the form of a sadistic demon prince, Naberious, played by the movie’s only air of positivity, Bill Nighy.

Requiring the creature for his reprehensible scheme to reanimate the soulless dead, Naberious is a convincing malevolence; however, this small chink of light is overshadowed by a cloud of creative doom. The very trendy named Adam faces an internal conflict, as he must decide whether to “fly” with the gargoyles and protect the human race or succumb to his demonic urges and destroy everything in his path. You, the viewer, may also be faced with an internal conflict, should I laugh or should I cry? I found myself alternating between both.

 

Contributor, John Glynn

As a contributor of CultureM Magazine, he is writing about global culture, for example, movie, music so on. And he has a PhD in Psychology.

영국 출신의 컬쳐엠매거진 컨트리뷰터 존 그린은 영화, 음악 등 문화 관련 컨텐츠에서 날카로운 분석을 통한 심도 깊은 이야기를 전해주고 있다.