Victor Frankenstein premiered in late November with much hype and a decent box office (more than 4 million dollars in the US since november 25).The movie is an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic story. It follows the lives of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, played by James McAvoy, as he’s creating his terrifying monster. Daniel Radcliffe plays Dr Frankestein sidekick Igor (a former circus clown that's also a medicine genius). Jessica Brown Findlay (from Downton Abbey) is also in the cast – she plays Radcliffe's love interest, Lorelei.
Even though the original Frankenstein story is categorized in Horror, thisVictor Frankensteinrebooton the big screen doesn't follow this path: if anything, it’s more of an action film with a multitude of fight scenes.
The film attempts to give the classic story a modern spin, as Radcliffe stated before it premiered. “One of the big differences in this film is when the monster is created, and that puts a very different perspective on everything. The main monster isn’t created until nearer the end of the movie, whereas traditionally it’s something that happens earlier. So it’s less about what happens to the world after the monster is created, and the monster in general, it’s more about the relationship between Frankenstein and Igor preceding it, which of course isn’t a relationship that is in the book," he said.
Victor Frankenstein starts off with Dr Frankenstein rescuing Igor from a freak show (where he’s one of the stars) after he’s been bullied by the owners.
Frankenstein finds out Igor owns many medical books and is very interested in the subject. With that, they join forces and create the somehow human-shaped creature from body parts they found in cemeteries and zoos. Their nemesis is Inspector Turpin (played by Andrew Scott) a police officer who fights them for “trying to play God."
Critics from all over the world are claiming the movie is one of the biggest flops of the year, and James McAvoy’s acting is being considered particularly over the top – but Victor Frankenstein does have some good characteristics.
Journalists from The Dailymail, for example, stated that “Max Landis’s mostly chaotic screenplay riffs on Mary Shelley’s original story with some semi-interesting ideas about Creationism vs. Science, and Paul McGuigan (who also directed episodes of the TV drama Sherlock) orchestrates a few stirring action scenes."
